SW: From the Ashes 2: Face of the Enemy
by Jedi Carpet
Summary: AU. A continuation of Détente's End. The Skywalkers are missing, presumed dead, and the Sith begin their plot to regain what Palpatine lost while the Jedi lick their wounds.
1. Prologue

This is the continuation of _From the Ashes_, which started with **Détente's End **(See my profile for link)

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars and make no claims to. It is George Lucas' sandbox, not mine. I am not being paid for this, and is purely for everyone's enjoyment, mostly my own.

* * *

DP

**Sith**

Soora Bulq – Weequay Male Sith Master

Darth Krak – Human Male Sith Lord

Darth Treulos – Human Female Sith Lord

Sekava – Human Male Sith Recruit

Morris – Human Male Sith Recruit

Hashi – Twi'lek Female Sith Trainee

**Mandalorians**

Urik Ragash – Human Male, Mandalore

Lanos – Human Male, Squad Leader

Parmis – Human Male, Squad member

Trigger – Human Male, Demolition Expert

Roshi – Human Male, Sniper

Blade – Human Female, Melee Combat Expert

Squeak – Human Male, Technology Expert

* * *

**Prologue**

_The grainy blue holographic image showed a large circular room full of people who appeared to be wearing the same style outfits. The body language of some suggested they were arguing, indicated by agitation and emotional faces, while others seemed to be entirely passive. After a few moments of silent video, the sound seemed to appear out of nowhere._

"…_need strong leadership with the loss of Master Skywalker," A man with shoulder length dark hair said. "Octa and I are the last remaining members of the Council, and _we_ will select the new Council from among the masters."_

"_That should be for the masters to decide as a group, Kyp," The face that said these words was recognizable by virtually everyone in the galaxy – former smuggler Han Solo. "Throw some democracy into this place, at least where it counts."_

_Kyp gave Han a wounded look but said nothing else when almost everyone head in the room nodded in agreement._

"_What are you even doing here?" A woman beside Kyp asked Han, slamming a fist on the table she sat at. "You are no more a Jedi than this table is."_

"That's Octa Ramis," Darth Treulos said quietly, and fell to silence to let the holo continue.

"_You're not the only Council members left," A Corellian accented voice came from the holographic door. Every head in the room turned and five people entered the recording: Two human males with beards, a Barabel, and two human females. One was Jaina Solo, the other was unrecognized._

The image froze.

"I don't know anything about that one," Darth Treulos pointed to the female who had just entered beside the well-recognized image of Han's daughter, Jaina Solo. Her hair was light and her mature poise betrayed her youthful looks, but the group she entered with appeared to be the most significant thing about her. As her clothes suggested her to be more a smuggler or pirate than a Jedi Knight, the only thing that appeared to connect her with the Jedi was a pair of lightsabers hanging from her belt. "But the two men are Kyle Katarn and Corran Horn. Horn spoke. The Barabel is Saba Seybatine. All but that blond woman are Masters."

"_Saba and Kenth are still alive, last time I checked," Horn gestured to the Barabel at his side. "Kenth will be along shortly."_

"_I see," Kyp said, seemingly grateful that Octa was distracted from Han's presence. "But on the matter of the Council; the Council has always elected its own members. Even Master Skywalker did when he was our leader. There should be no change from tradition."_

"_I disagree," Saba said. "The old Counzil iz all but dead. A new one is needed, a strong one we muzt all believe in. Everyone should have a say. This iz _our_ Order now, we must all decide our future. And you are just as much a Council member as this one is! I say all masterz vote!"_

_Murmurs of agreement broke out among the Jedi._

"_I concur," Kenth Hamner said, entering the room from the door. A large man with a beard he was readily recognizable from his job as PR manager and military defence coordinator for the Jedi. He gestured to Kyp, Octa, Saba, and himself. "And as we have four Council members in even opposition, a third party must be acknowledged. I propose the Masters' Assembly be that third party."_

_Kyp looked like he just swallowed a raw gort egg._

"_What is she doing here?" He pointed at the light-haired female he finally noticed. "Get her _out_ of here!"_

"_I'll be willing to leave if anyone is willing to remove me,"the unnamed woman responded with a smirk._

_Nobody moved._

"_Fine," Kyp said. "You may _listen_."_

The holoimage froze again.

"There's some bad blood between them," Darth Treulos spoke again. "I do not know why, but he appears to fear her."

"Her name is Eriana Fostenon. She travelled with Jacen Solo," A deep, commanding voice said, surprising everyone in the room. "He is right to fear her, but she is a mere apprentice to Solo. She is of no threat to the Sith."

The image resumed after a moment of awkward silence.

"_Master Durron," Leia Organa, one of the few non-masters in the holo, spoke for the first time. "I think you need to consider the lengths of your influence here. If you try to overrule everyone, you'll find yourself on your own. The Masters will elect their own Council with or without you."_

"_It sounds like something your son would do," Kyp snapped. "Where is he, anyway? I thought he'd be here trying to take the Order over."_

"_He said he had to consult with a group of Force users he met a few years ago," Eriana spoke. "He didn't seem to think you were worth his time."_

"_Speaking of not worth someone's time," Kyp growled at her, but his face suddenly changed. The image of Chief of State Cal Omas appeared, striding into the room with four other people in tow._

"_I apologize for the interruption," Cal Omas spoke hurriedly, as if he expected to be thrown out and wanted to say everything he had planned to say. "But I wished to speak to you regarding the loss of Master Skywalker."_

"_Pleaze continue," Saba said without looking at Kyp or Octa._

"_The Alliance has been built on the leadership of the Jedi, and the Jedi have been invaluable to us," Cal said. "Like any governing body, the Jedi function best when led by the strongest leader. If I may, I would like to suggest the appointment of Leia Organa as the Master of the Jedi. Her political and leadership skills will prove invaluable to the Jedi in this period of unfortunate loss."_

_Leia looked as shocked as anyone, but Kyp was immediately on his feet._

"_Never will a Jedi Knight be Grand Master!" Kyp shouted above the increasing noise from the assembled Jedi._

"_Queen Mother Tenel Ka?" Cal gestured to the general direction of the holocamera to a woman facing away from the camera._

"_Or perhaps Master Hamner or Master Horn," Cal gestured to Corran not far from him. "All three are skilled leaders..."_

_Corran shook his head in opposition to the idea, but Kenth held up his large hands to draw a silence from everyone._

"_The Jedi, like every other member of the Galactic Alliance, will pick their own leaders, Chief Omas," Kenth said with a very grave look on his face. "Nobody will select our leaders for us any more than we would select a leader for the Alliance. If you could be so kind to let our meeting continue…" Kenth gestured to the door. A moment later Cal bowed his head and left, though he hardly appeared happy to do so._

Another man stood up and spoke once Cal Omas left, but the image froze again.

"Waxarn Kel." Darth Treulos identified the man. "A very militant minded Jedi. He was killed in an unfortunate accident shortly after this recording. He was the perfect Sith infiltrator for us – he did our work without even knowing it. He sowed discontent and distrust in what he thought was the best interests of the Jedi. A fool, but he did have his uses for us. His idiocy will be missed by us."

"_I propose the Jedi choose our leaders as quickly as possible to get this over with," Kel said. "We need to rebuild the Order. Much was lost during the attack on Ossus with over ten of our very best members. We must rebuild so we can be an effective force to be reckoned with once again. The galaxy can take care of itself without us, but we cannot take care of it in our present state."_

_Murmurs of agreement broke out among the Jedi, but Eriana stepped forward._

"_I may not be one of your Order," She said. "But I believe the Jedi are the servants of the galaxy. We need to be out there helping the people of the Republic. Cower here if you want, but I'll help anyone in need I can find. Any Jedi here is welcome to join me."_

_Several Jedi looked confused about which way to swing their vote, but the recording cut out unexpectedly._

"That is the full transmission from our contact within the Jedi," Darth Treulos said. "As you can see, Lord Bulq, the Jedi are becoming fractured with only a few respected members trying to keep them together. Without Luke Skywalker and his mate, they have fallen into disarray."

"They have not yet arrived at disarray, my young apprentice," Soora Bulq said in his characteristically deep, calculating voice. "They have merely programmed a course to it. It will take more work to fracture their weak Order, but our plans are already in the works. However, this recording does not answer my question. I already knew the Jedi would break apart without Skywalker's presence. What I want to know is: _Where is Jacen Solo?_"

Darth Treulos looked uneasy, but held his stare – hardly an easy thing to do after being shouted at by a Vaapad master at the edge of his patience.

"We don't know," She admitted. "He disappeared just before that meeting. This is the first hint we've had about his whereabouts. The bounty hunters we hired cannot find a trace of him, the Jedi appear to have no knowledge of him, and all the official records we found have come up blank. He has simply vanished. Nobody actually knows where he went on his journey so tracing his steps…"

"People do not simply vanish!" Soora slammed a fist on the table, upsetting a glass of water at the far end. "I want him _found_! I want him _dead_!"

"Surely one man cannot be so dangerous," A tall broad man who dwarfed the chair he sat in said. "If he has vanished, perhaps it is because he is afraid of _us_."

"Tell him," Soora said to Darth Treulos with barely controlled rage. "Tell _him_ what you told _me_ of Jacen Solo."

"Lord Krak," Darth Treulos said. "I grew up with Jacen Solo. He is a true Jedi through and through. His brother nearly became my husband, and he my brother. There are few Jedi as adept as he is, and in the last five years he has become more capable than any living Jedi. He is the greatest threat we Sith could face."

"If he is this great a threat." Lord Krak stood tall and looked his master in the eye with confidence. "I will lead the hunt for him myself."

"No, no, my friend." Soora dismissed the idea and put a hand on Krak's shoulder. "I need you here to help me train our new recruits. Solo took out almost thirty of our best in that foolish attack on Hapes. We need to rebuild our numbers, and I don't think even you can stop him alone. Go now: there is a ship arriving with our latest recruits. See to it they are cared for."

"Yes, my lord," Krak dismissed himself and disappeared.

"What do you think of the transmission, young Urik?" Soora asked a moment later.

The Mandalorian shifted in his armour and sat up straighter.

"Obviously the Jedi are fracturing," Urik Ragash said. "Unfortunately I do not believe it is quite enough yet. We need to put pressure on them."

"Pressure will come," Soora smiled. "But there are more important concerns. Explain to me why you authorized the attack on Hapes!"

"I did not," Urik growled. "One of my fleet commanders decided to gain retribution on a centuries old feud with the Hapans. He has been made an example of for other commanders to learn by."

"Good," Soora said. "It is bad enough he angered a powerful enemy, but he not only ruined our best chance to make them an ally; he lost thirty of my best warriors and countless ships in the process! I hope his death was as painful as it was honourless. It will take much to explain this to the Alliance if we want to join their ranks."

"I assure you, his death was sufficiently humiliating," Urik replied. Being left on Yavin Four naked with only a half-charged blaster and hunted by the most junior of the Mandalorians was as insulting as punishment came among the warrior ranks. The bravest shot themselves before anyone else could, but this particular commander decided to risk fighting a pack of Woolimanders. The risk did not pay off.

"We must give the Alliance reason to trust us," Soora mused, satisfied with Urik's word. "The distribution of raw materials is causing tension in the senate and with the Jedi, but we need to squeeze more pressure. Ideas?"

"I heard mention of a pirate group harassing the Alliance," Darth Treulos said. "They call themselves the 'Black Vornskrs.' If we wipe them out, the Alliance will be grateful. The Jedi are ignoring the Black Vornskrs in their efforts to rebuild their ranks and the military is not equipped to protect all the Alliance convoys. The Black Vornskrs are picking off shipments in the midrim with relative ease."

"See to their demise," Soora said. "Draft a plan using whatever resources you require and bring it to my attention."

"Yes, Lord Bulq."

A mild chirping sound and blinking light on the table caught Soora's attention. He pressed the blinking button.

"Yes?"

"Lord Bulq," A voice said. "We have recovered a Jedi Council datacore from in storage that appears forgotten from the evacuation. It is heavily encrypted."

"Understood." Soora flicked the comm. off. "Darth Treulos, please _ask_ our guests for the encryption codes."

"Yes, Master." She said heading to the door.

"And find a way of luring some Jedi into our ranks," He said. "In your spare time, of course. It would be nice to have skilled Force users like yourself readily available to join our cause."

"Yes, Lord Bulq," She finally retreated, leaving Soora and his puppet alone.

"Keep a tight leash on your troops," Soora cautioned. "My plans are older than you, _boy_. I don't need your vengeful idiots ruining it for me."

"Yes, Lord Bulq," Urik said, but Soora had already stormed out of the room.

Darth Treulos opened the door to the well lit grey holding cell where Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker hung from the ceiling beside Kam Sulster. Furnished with only a single bed, a bench, table, and a chair, the only remarkable aspect of this room was some ropy-looking vines hanging from the ceiling that held the prisoners in a constant threshold of pain. It was just enough to stop the Jedi from being able to concentrate on the Force, but not enough to cause them serious harm. This room was one of the best kept secrets among the Sith. Darth Treulos was surprised she was told about it upon her defection from the Jedi considering how close she once was to the prisoners, but she assumed Lord Bulq felt it was safe knowing the room was under heavy surveillance, tracking every word and action of the Jedi within.

Not even having been among the Sith for a week, she had already assumed her new name and many important duties Lord Bulq asked of her after she proved herself willing to become a Sith. She guessed it was not so surprising that she was taken into such confidence considering the majority of Lord Bulq's best people were imprisoned on Hapes after Jacen Solo foiled the attack on the queen. Good help was, afterall, hard to find.

Luke looked up at her when she arrived in front of him and smiled. As if a smile could turn her away from her new masters.

"Hello, Tahiri."

"That name no longer has any meaning to me," She said, drawing a small snake away from her wrist. The black snake hissed menacingly and slithered into her hand, hardening itself by her command into a dagger version of the Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff. "I am Darth Treulos now, and _you_ have some information for me."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**From the Private Journal of Jedi Master Jacen Solo **

_-With comments by B. Wrarm, Jedi Librarian-_

_-Six days after Mandalorian Assault on Hapes, 35 ABY-_

_-Soft click sound, some shuffling sounds and a soft pop-_

Eww, what the...? Was that a... That's disgusting! How does a bug just explode? At least...I think it was a bug...Oh, man, that smells like...

_-Indiscriminate frantic shuffling sounds and retching noises-_

Whose stupid idea was it to build _anything_ on this planet? Okay, get serious. Record button, and...

This is the private journal of Jedi Master Jacen Solo. Approximately three weeks ago the Sith attacked and took over Ossus while the Jedi were otherwise occupied, and by all reports my aunt and uncle, the Skywalkers, are dead.

I don't believe it. My sister doesn't believe it. And my mom doesn't believe it. Dad just kinda goes along with whatever mom says, but I think he believes us. Kyp wouldn't let us do anything, but Jaina, Mom, Dad, Eriana and I sat down to talk about it. I realized then that we couldn't risk anyone else, so I forbade them from doing anything. I left, alone, on a mission to find my aunt and uncle against the explicit orders of what is left of the Jedi Council, expressing the need to visit a group of Force users I had discovered years ago. Kyp was furious I was leaving – so furious that he refused to speak to me anymore – but if he wasn't going to authorize the mission, I knew I had to go on my own. He said we "had to sever ourselves from attachment and move on. A hopeless mission would only cost more lives." This isn't about attachment. This is about saving the Jedi Order. Luke and Mara are too valuable to the Jedi Order to be lost. Any chance of them still being alive warrants a rescue attempt for _everyone's_ sake.

I left only two days after the attack, and already the Order was falling apart. Kyp practically seized control himself citing emergency measures, and the other Jedi Masters were in a power struggle with him on how to re-establish the Jedi Council. I couldn't stand to watch the idiocy of it all, and I knew I had to do something. Nobody but my family believes Luke and Mara are alive. I mean, who would believe us if we said otherwise? They are our highest ranking and most respected Jedi Masters and they're in the hands of the Sith. They've played ball with Palpatine and came back on top. It's not like they're going to be turned anytime soon. It would be much easier for the Sith to just kill them.

But that's not how Soora likes to operate. He's a perfectionist. Unstable, a bit psychotic, but a perfectionist nonetheless. But he's not stupid – a fact I think Kyp likes to ignore during the few times he grudgingly admits the Sith have, in fact, returned. If Soora's planning a war against the Jedi, and I'm sure he is, he's going to want information. Who better to provide information but the Grand Master of the Jedi? Uncle Luke knows about all the operations the Jedi have planned, safe houses, communication codes, and procedures. He is, for all intents and purposes, the key to the Jedi. And this is why, family issues aside, I have to rescue him.

Officially, they are dead. The day I left Cal Omas even held a memorial ceremony broadcast galaxy-wide to honour the loss of one of the Rebellion and Republic's greatest members. _-He switches to a sarcastic tone of voice-_ What a tear jerker.

_-Resumes normal voice-_ I believe I am the only one who can save them.

-_He laughs softly-_ Sounds a tad arrogant, doesn't it? I didn't mean it that way. Honestly. It's just that I look back over the last five years, my training with Yoda and the others, the various cultures I've visited, and even the Sith holocrons I've studied, and I see that I have learned a lot of very useful skills in the Force that nobody else in the Order knows. The knowledge I have gathered will be extremely valuable in my search and will allow me to keep a step or two ahead of the Sith. Does it make me arrogant to say such a thing? I hope it is merely a statement in practicality.

One thing I learned is that the Sith, the real Sith, not these wannabes, were amazing at deception in far greater ways than we ever suspected. I picked up a technique from a holocron that Palpatine used to mask himself from the Jedi while he was around them every day. Combining it with Vergere's lessons, I can use the Force in small ways while maintaining a perfect disguise to the Sith in the Force. It should be just enough to keep myself going and use the Fallanassi techniques I learned so I can maintain an image of a different face that even Jaina would be fooled by.

As you probably know by now, I am infiltrating the ranks of our enemies in order to get close to Luke and Mara and free them. I have found an ally, who shall remain nameless in case this journal is somehow found and decrypted, that will help me as possible. We developed a plan, and both agreed to develop our own plans should the other be found out. We also agreed that, if necessary, one of us has to let the other hang if it means exposing both of us. Whoever has the best shot must take it for the sake of the Jedi Order.

_-He pauses for several moments-_

Everyone realizes that only Master Skywalker can repair the fractures in the Order, even Kyp. Uncle Luke must be brought back at all costs before Kyp's attempt at leading the Jedi destroys them.

If all goes well, anyone who reads this journal will already know who my ally is and the outcome of this unofficial, and likely crazy, mission. But I'm a Solo. If you listen to my dad, the Solos invented crazy. I mean, if a Solo could break into the Death Star with a Wookiee and...

_-Distant shuffling sounds and indiscernible noises growing louder-_

I have to go; someone's coming. I hope, if I am found and killed, this explains why I ran off while the Jedi Order was falling apart. Some Jedi said I should be replacing Luke, but that is not my place. Everyone knew someone needed to do something, and nothing else made sense. If I failed and you find this, please tell my family I love them.

**End Entry**

**-**

Roshi Grall checked his DC-92AJ-S sniper rifle for the third time, and swore at his superior officer.

"How kriffin' long do I have to wait here?"

"I'll make you lie there forever if you don't shut up and watch your target."

That was all the answer he expected to get. As the sniper in his squad of Mandalorian brothers – and sister – Roshi's job was to be patient and pick off targets when his squad mates told him to. Lanos Gaff, the squad leader, was an old Mandalorian. Old enough to brag that he almost became the template of the clones used during the Clone Wars. Nobody actually believed him, but his skill in battle, even in his old age, was second-to-none. He was a tough gundark, and fought every day to prove that. Some rumours around the ranks even claimed he was able to beat Jedi in hand-to-hand combat in his youth, and others traced his lineage to the Mandalorians that fought with Exar Kun. Either way, his gold-painted commander armour was well earned.

"Easy there, Roshi." A second voice came through the private squad frequency. The air-tight helmets kept sound from escaping so Roshi could be screaming bloody murder at his teammates and an enemy could walk within a metre of his head and not hear a thing. "We'll attack soon enough."

That was Parmis. Roshi only knew him as Parmis, and that is all he needed to know. Clad in blue and yellow armour, he was the second in command of the group and had been hand trained by Lanos since he was a baby. Parmis was a jack-of-all-trades on the battlefield. A born field combatant and leader, Parmis could fight bare-handed or with any weapon almost as well as anyone else in the squad. He carried the diplomacy in place of Lanos's gruffness, and always brought home his team. Usually he deferred to Lanos when the team was together, but Roshi had heard Parmis led his own missions from time to time.

"Gotcha, Parmy," Roshi acknowledged, his greenness amongst the Mandos showing through with an unauthorized nickname. "I'm just wondering why I can't take her head off now. I have a clear shot."

"Not too soon," Parmis replied. "When you're hunting down a Sith, the farther away you are the more likely they'll whip that lightsaber out and deflect it."

"I doubt she could block this thing," Roshi laughed, marvelling at the 92AJ's barrel.

"Shut up and wait," Lanos barked again. "Squeak, Trigger, move up and set your charges on that ridge. Don't forget your cloaking fields."

Roshi activated the scanner on his scope so he could track his cloaked squad mates. It was calibrated to detect the Mandalorian cloak energy field, but only for a specific squad. He glanced over the battlefield once more, taking in the whole picture. They were in an abandoned durasteel quarry on some unnamed planet in Hutt space attacking a Sith 'base' in a training exercise to teach Mandalorians how to defeat Jedi. So far the other Mandalorian squad was pinning the Sith down with long distance blaster fire as Lanos' squadron was sneaking around to take the Sith out from behind. Half an hour since the start of the exercise, Parmis and Blade had snuck around the left side while Lanos, Roshi, Squeak, and Trigger were on the right. Roshi had moved ahead on the right to get a clear shot across the side of the base, easily able to see all ten Sith and protect the rest of his squad while they laid charges on the ridge left over from mining operations. Parmis and Blade had already laid their charges, and Trigger and Squeak were finally in position.

"Isn't this gonna piss them off?" Roshi asked. "I mean, we're not supposed to be killing each other. Burying them in rocks isn't exactly playing friendly."

"Do you ever shut up?" Blade, the only female in the group, asked. A hand-to-hand and melee weapon specialist, she was tough as nails, short tempered, and carried an ancient Cortosis-wave sword on her green armour that could withstand blows from a lightsaber. She hated blasters, but carried a heavy repeating mini-cannon. She once explained to Roshi that if she had to fight at a distance, she might as well fight with the biggest, most forgiving weapon she could find. "The rocks are to trap them. Then we charge in, and shoot them in the head with a stun blast to win."

"Do you even have a stun setting on that portable turbolaser of yours?" Roshi asked sarcastically.

"Who recruited this kid?" She retorted. "I swear we should've left him on Nar Kreeta."

"Best raw sniper talent I've ever seen," Lanos grunted. "Shut up, both of you."

"Charges are set, and we're clear," Squeak reported. "Let's roast us some Sith!"

Squeak was the slicer in the company. Barely with the group longer than Roshi, he could reportedly handle any electronics, but was slightly clumsy in combat. He carried an assault rifle on loan from Trigger, but his blue armour was lined with various computer hacking tools whereas everyone else had retractable blades, flame throwers, or other weapons of the trade. He was the smallest physically in the group, and looked a lot like a Dantooine field mouse with ears that naturally sat pushed out from his head – which is how he got his nickname.

Trigger was the complete opposite of Squeak. The largest in the group with huge muscles and minimal brain power, he was likable in that he was grounded in his own reality, whatever that reality might be. An explosives and heavy weapons expert, he carried an assault rifle that mimicked his massive frame and he thoroughly enjoyed the usage of mines, grenades, and various other explosives whenever possible. To him, using explosives was more of an art than an expression of war. He wore full Mandalorian assault troop armour equipped with more integrated weapons than Boba Fett's, but he painted it completely black. While it looked very intimidating and intentional, Blade once told Roshi that he fell into a vat of paint during a mission and never bothered to clean his armour afterwards. Even though he looked like he could wrestle a Wookiee into submission, his hand-to-hand combat skills were as brutal as his etiquette.

"Whenever you're ready, Trigger," Lanos said calmly.

"Ready for it…and…BOOM."

Nothing happened.

"Now, I know I'm new to all this," Roshi said. "But isn't there supposed to be fire and flying rocks and that sort of thing?"

Trigger growled some indiscriminate and inappropriate words at Roshi, some of which were drowned out by intense clicking noises making their way through the comm channel.

"Heads up," Parmis said calmly. "The Sith know we're here. Blondie just pointed at us."

"They must be jamming the detonation frequency," Lanos said. "Roshi, make that rifle of yours useful and hit the charges or I'll beat you with the thing myself."

"Yes, boss!" Roshi targeted the detpacks and tagged all four of them with his HUD using a series of eye blinks and the linked targeting scope on his blaster.

"Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom."

Four explosions sent a cascade of rocks sliding down towards the Sith. Roshi twisted the focus on his barrel, separating it into five parts and aimed at the Sith leader. Suddenly distracted by the discovery of a rockslide coming at her and destroying her jamming equipment, the rather pretty blonde with three ugly scars on her forehead did not sense his aim at first. He pulled the trigger to launch five blaster bolts at her, and was glad to see that one made it through her lightsaber defence. He smiled to himself, enjoying the effect of the Anti-Jedi technology modified into the sniper rifle. In theory, a Jedi would be able to deflect two, maybe three, or even four of the five blaster bolts the multi-position five barrel rifle could produce, but not the fifth. The blaster bolt that made its way through her defence struck her forearm and sent her lightsaber flying away. A second shot to the chest with all five barrels dropped her like a rock.

_Speaking of rocks…_

"Did someone forget to do the math?" Roshi asked. All the rocks that were loosed by the explosion were tumbling slowly, running out of momentum as they bounced down the rock face. They finally stopped just shy of the Sith as the remaining nine charged up the settling rockslide towards the commando squad.

"Nope," Trigger said happily. "Those little gundark lickers won't know what hit them. Boom." He squeezed a second trigger and half a dozen flash-bang grenades amongst the rubble went off, burning magnesium for ten seconds and creating a deafening sonic wave to overload the senses of the Sith. Roshi took the opportunity to down another three Sith, while his squadmates opened up and wiped out the rest of the Sith squad.

"Mandos: Ten, Sith: Zero," Blade said, a grin obvious in her words.

"And I didn't even get to use my plasma grenades," Trigger pouted.

-

Ossus' fluffy clouds buffeted the transport as it made its way through the atmosphere on the way to the new Sith Academy, bouncing the occupants around as it made its final approach. Sekava finally pretended to wake up and instantly regretted it as the annoying red haired boy beside him started jabbering away again.

"Hey, you're awake!" The boy exclaimed. "Do you think its safe, the bumping around? This is the first time I've been in a space ship."

"I know," Sekava moaned. "You said that when we got on the ship. And when we took off. And twenty times an hour since we got on here. Do you ever shut up?"

"No," He shook his head enthusiastically. "My mom always said I'd talk the ears off a gundark. That reminds me of a joke about an Ithorian, a gundark, and a krayt dragon…"

Sekava turned his ears off and stared out the window again, pretending to be absorbing Ossus's landscape. The boy beside him was less than half his age, and Sekava could not understand why he had been selected to become a Sith. This boy's mannerisms seemed more aligned with the Jedi than the Sith. He was as weak as they came, and twice as annoying.

_This sure wasn't in the brochure,_ Sekava thought. _I thought the others were annoying, but this kid is just painful._

"Say, Morris," Sekava turned to the little kid beside him as the ship finally started to settle down. "Tell me about your home. What was it like?"

"Oh, we lived on a farm," Morris said as enthusiastically as an over-charged droid. "Mom and dad were great and they always took care of me. Dad said he was going to build me a …"

"Attention passengers, this is the captain speaking," A deep mellow voice suddenly announced. "We have arrived at Ossus and you will now exit out the doors you entered. Your belongings are to be removed with you or they will never be seen again. Depart immediately."

"That guy makes me laugh," Morris grinned. "He sounds so happy when he talks."

Sekava knew the reason the pilot sounded so 'happy' – Morris had spend about an hour questioning him about every last knob and dial in the cockpit before being physically removed and having the door locked in his face. The pilot refused to come out for the rest of the trip, and only opened the door for meals. Sekava did not bother responding and picked up the small satchel that carried all his possessions – two changes of clothes and various pieces of survival gear. As his story went, having been a drifter that the Sith had picked up on Nar Kreeta, he did not have many possessions save a few credits, a couple good vibroknives and the blaster he wore against his chest beneath his tattered leather jacket.

Morris, however, seemed to have packed everything short of his favourite nerf. Sekava helped him carry one bag off the ship while Morris struggled with another one. They made it out of the ship with the twenty other Sith-hopefuls who were travelling from various worlds to Ossus to be greeted by an angry looking man with a shaved head, black robes, and a ragged leather cape that looked like it was torn off a giant beast.

"He has a lightsaber!" Morris pointed at the angry man. "Sekava, look at that, a _real_ lightsa-!"

Morris' words were cut off by the sound of the lightsaber igniting and the sudden breeze of air bringing that lightsaber and the angry man up to his neck.

"You will speak when spoken to," The man growled with his nose a thumb width from Morris's. "Or you will not speak again."

Morris stood petrified as the man withdrew.

"I am Darth Krak," He announced in a low voice just above a growl, lightsaber still humming angrily in his hand. "You are the newest students of the Sith Empire. Here on Ossus you will learn the ways of the Force from myself and others. Failure is not an option. Bravery and cunning will be rewarded, while compassion and weakness will not be accepted. You will not leave the Sith Academy unless an instructor allows otherwise. Your training is serious: It will be up to you to continue the Sith legacy. We have two rules here: Do not speak to the Mandalorians; and do not find yourself somewhere you should not be."

He pointed to a building in the centre of the complex with his lightsaber blade.

"Those are the dorms," Krak said. "Find a room to yourself and wait there until I find you. If I catch _anyone_ wandering the halls or in another's room before I speak to them…"

A flourish of his blade finished the sentence.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Roshi circled Blade in the battle circle, planning his attack. Her prowess in the battle circle was a thing of legend, never having lost a match in years. He feigned forward with a kick, expecting to pull it back and launch a hand attack when he found himself bouncing off the ground.

"Wow, Blade, you got a whole metre off that bounce!" Squeak called from the sidelines.

"I don't think a man could bounce like that," Trigger nodded to Squeak. "He must be a Hutt. He's already fat and ugly."

"If he's fat," Blade asked, pointing to Roshi's thin frame and referring to Triggers massive bulk of muscles. "What're you?"

"Sexy."

"Ugh." Roshi rolled onto his feet and took up a defensive stance. His fifth attempt, conveniently also his fifth failure, left him aching as much as the last four combined.

"He's a tough son of a gundark, though," Parmis commented, slapping Squeak on the shoulder. "You were done after the first throw."

"Her throws hurt!" Squeak exclaimed.

"So does your voice," Blade called back, effortlessly tossing Roshi across her back with his legs soaring over in the air. He landed on his side, one leg clapping down before the other, and immediately curled up in the foetal position clutching his groin, eyes wide in pain. Parmis, Trigger, and Squeak all winced, having experienced the same throw.

"Hurts like a Sith, eh?" Trigger asked.

"I wouldn't know," Blade said, kicking dirt at Roshi. "Get up."

"You really know how to make a guy feel welcome," Roshi groaned as he forced himself to his feet. Before he could steady himself, Blade lunged at him with a punch, but he was ready. He blocked with a forearm, curled his hand around to grab her wrist, and sliced his other arm against her throat, effectively putting her in an arm bar. He breathed deep and leaned back, using his chest to hyper extend her elbow and put her off balance.

"Wow, even blind banthas find water some days," A nasty female voice came from behind Roshi. He looked over his shoulder to see the scarred blond Sith he shot in the training exercise the day before walking beside Lanos.

"Form up everyone," Lanos growled. "Darth Treulos has our new orders."

"Treulos?" Roshi asked. "That's the best they could come up with? Was 'Darth Hideous' taken?"

The next thing Roshi knew he was being held up by his neck a metre off the ground and his throat was being closing in on itself.

"Stand down, Darth," Lanos said calmly. Each of the Mandos in Roshi's squad had drawn their weapons and had a bead on her head.

"So this is the nerf-kriffer who shot me?" She asked, still holding Roshi up, but no longer choking him. She looked him over carefully. He suddenly became embarrassingly aware of the layers of dirt he had accumulated in the Battle Circle. "He is lucky he is an asset to the cause."

"And you're an asset too!" Roshi exclaimed with the wide grin of a used speeder salesman. "A wonderful asset. A nice wonderful, well-tempered asset who likes putting people down and not choking them to death."

She glared at him for a moment, as if she could not believe such an idiot could be a crack sniper, before throwing him hard to the ground.

"Ow."

"You are lucky you can still speak, fool," She sneered, turning back towards Lanos. "As pathetic as this bunch is, you have impressed me. I therefore have a mission for you. You will 'weaken the hinges' on the door to a pirate base so our fleet can decimate the location. I will be accompanying your team to ensure you do not fail miserably."

"Who are them pirates?" Trigger asked.

"Some group harassing the GA," She said, her tone suggesting she was happy to speak with someone who seemed capable of intelligent thought, which might have been the first time in his life he was considered for such a thing. "They are surprisingly well organized and their base is heavily fortified."

"I don't wanna help no stinkin' GA," Roshi sneered. "Kriffin' politicians do nothing but cry about poodoo on their thrones while killing off people through neglect. Why do you think I'm here?"

Darth Treulos shoved him away with the Force without even looking at him, and addressed the rest of the group.

"What this _fool_ neglects to understand is that in order for us to bring down the GA, we want them to be _complacent_. With pirates groups sending them into high alert, and the moronic senators begging for more arms to defend their planets with, our job will be that much harder.

"We will also be playing some politics ourselves," She continued. "Once the GA sees we are doing things of their benefit, they will be more appreciative when we take over."

"Hey, that's a pretty smart thing to do," Roshi commented.

"Make sure this child does not spend any time alone with me on this mission," Treulos spat at Lanos as she walked away. "You could find yourself looking for a new sniper."

"Thanks, guys," Roshi said, rubbing his throat. "Nice of you all to stand up for me."

"You're a brother," Lanos said as he walked away. "And too good a shot to lose."

-

Sekava found a room easily enough on the second floor of the dormitory. The rooms were quite sparse having been cleaned out by the Jedi before they left, but someone had gone from one room to the next throwing basic items such as a sleeping pad and blanket into each. His room was a good size, but not the biggest around. As he went searching for a room he had come across several that were already occupied, and nearly lost his head for his trouble. He quickly learned that the Sith who had been around longer, and were obviously better trained, had the larger rooms. One even had furniture – such as the Twi'lek female who nearly removed Sekava's head for knocking on her door. He quickly surmised that Sith challenged each other for their possessions and rooms, and thought it was likely one of the best rooms on the planet was owned by Darth Krak.

Sekava surveyed his room while waiting for Darth Krak to visit. He had a main area about three square metres, and an adjoining refresher. Along one wall was a set of drawers under a counter on which his satchel currently sat. Two windows looked out over an outer defence wall at a plain of long grass, and glowpanels around the parameter of the ceiling would provide lighting at night. Given the lack of a bed and furniture, there was enough room for Sekava to exercise in the peace of his own room.

The only disadvantage was that Morris found a small room nobody wanted right beside him. Even with the doors closed, Sekava could still hear the younger student talking to himself discovering every last thing in his room with the cries of excitement only someone who had never been off a nerf farm could produce. Morris had suggested they knock a section of wall out and put a door in, but Sekava said Darth Krak may not approve.

Sekava waited half an hour for Darth Krak, and decided to do some light exercises while waiting. He started with several exercises, and half way through his set of push-ups he heard his door open.

"Now that is what I like to see," A deep voice said. "A student eager to start his training."

Sekava stopped and looked up at Darth Krak, and stood up.

"I…Thank you, Master," Sekava mumbled out.

"I sense you will go far," Krak said. "If you have the courage to travel your path, that is. Tell me your name, boy."

"Sekava."

"Just Sekava?"

"Yes. I never knew my parents. When I was old enough, I picked my own name."

"I see." The Dark Lord paced slightly. "What does being Sith mean to you?"

Sekava thought for a few moments before answering.

"It means I don't have to go hungry," He finally said. "That I am off the streets; that nobody will be hunting me down; that I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder to see if someone is going to stab me in the back. It will be my freedom."

"Interesting," Krak said with a smirk. "I think you will find your road down that path has just begun. Sith are strong. We fight for what we want. If you want the nerf steaks instead of the vegetables, you _fight_ for them. If you want to keep your room, you fight off challengers. If you want furniture, you _take_ it. Someone will always want to stab you in the back to get what you have, and your freedom is far from near. You must earn your freedom by fighting for it. This is the Sith way."

Krak immediately sensed fear welling up in Sekava.

"You should be afraid," Krak nodded. "Fear will keep your senses sharp. I can teach you to keep your fear from overpowering you, to teach you how to use it to your advantage, and maybe even impose it on others. I can teach you powers you have never dreamed of. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to learn them? To learn the things you need to know to gain your freedom?"

"Yes," Sekava said without hesitation.

"Will you do whatever I say?"

"Yes," Sekava repeated.

Krak ignited his lightsaber and held it a hand span away from Sekava.

"Throw yourself on my lightsaber."

Sekava looked at the red blade and back up at Krak. "Now, or can you give me a few years first?"

"You have gall, Sekava!" Krak burst out laughing. He deactivated the lightsaber and returned it to his belt. A datapad appeared in his hand from behind inside the cape. "And brains, too. You will do well among the Sith. Take this datapad. It has some readings you might enjoy, and your class list."

Krak smiled as he handed the datapad over. "But first, I want to teach you a lesson. To confirm what I already suspect."

A credit chip floated in the space between the two humans, obviously held up by Krak's command of the Force.

"Push this chip towards me."

Sekava looked at the credit chip. It appeared to be like any other, save that it was currently defying gravity. He suspected Krak did not mean for him to push it with a finger, so he focused on the chip with squinted eyes and _pushed_.

The chip wobbled.

"Do it again. Focus yourself."

Sekava focused harder this time. He saw the credit chip, reached out with his mind and pushed with all his will power, only this time the chip fell to the ground. Darth Krak, however, found himself suddenly pushed up against the wall, and Sekava found himself on his butt.

"I – I - I'm so sorry!" Sekava stammered. "I didn't meant to, I…"

"I should apologize," Krak said in awe, walking over and offering Sekava a hand to stand up. "You caught me off guard. Nobody has ever performed so well on their first use of the Force. I did not mean to retaliate."

He called the coin to his hand from the floor and tossed it to Sekava.

"Practice pushing the coin around on the floor or lifting it in the air," Krak ordered, walking out the door. "And try to not put any holes in the walls!"

"Yes, master."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

At one of the highest points of the Sith Academy on Ossus, Soora Bulq gazed out of his office window using his vantage point to look over the Sith Empire. His Sith Empire. Years of hard work rekindling the embers of the Sith in his veins into a fire that produced almost fifty warriors and trainees, forged an alliance with the failing Mandalorian government, and finally cumulated in the assault on Ossus that removed the Jedi from their home and led to the capture of their greatest leader since Yoda – the son of the Chosen One.

He reflected upon his life following the devotions of the Jedi and the Sith while standing in Luke Skywalker's office. The similarities between the Jedi and the Sith, to Soora, were not that different. Both sought power. Luke's own office was evidence of this. He could look down and see his Sith training, watching their moves, and guiding them from above to forge them into his personal weapon against the Jedi. And this was a Jedi design? The irony brought an amused smile to Soora's face, but such thoughts could not distract Soora from the driving ambition that kept him awake at night and gnawed at his bones; to find and kill the one Jedi who could stop him. Skywalker was nothing without Vaapad, a mere child in the Force that now hung from a ceiling in a cell his own people once built. Solo was the only true threat to the Sith, one that must be stopped at all costs – provided he could be found.

Though Skywalker certainly was annoying on his own accord. Gone were the simple, unelabourate wooden desk and chairs that were once in this office. An elaborate black wrought durasteel desk and a plush throne, not unlike Palpatine's own, dominated the office, setting the tone for the new rendition of this facility.

A knock sounded at his door and Soora's lieutenants, Darth Krak and Darth Treulos entered his office. While Skywalker had chairs to make his minions feel comfortable, Soora believed it best to keep them on their feet. Keeping them uncomfortable would remind them who was in control.

Soora turned away from the expansive view and faced his closest allies. Lord Krak was a large imposing man with a shaved head and intense glare from two ominously dark eyes. Among Soora's first students, Krak was one of few who had truly mastered Vaapad as well as Soora had. The intense unpredictable form of combat seemed an odd choice for such a large man who would not look out of place with a large wooden club in hand and a decimetre of drool hanging from his chin, but his size betrayed a very agile man.

Beside him was Darth Treulos. Recently arrived from the Mandalorian training planet, she had not long ago defected from the Jedi. Once known as Tahiri Velia and shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong invaders, she was physically every bit the opposite of Krak. Abandoned on the world of Zonama Sekot and bitter about the Jedi's murder of her beloved Anakin Solo, Luke Skywalker's own nephew who was sent on a suicide mission by Skywalker, her anger and bitterness found home within the Sith ranks. Now entrusted with her lost love's murderer, she had extracted several pieces of important information from the captive Jedi. She refused to learn Vaapad, instead focusing on developing her own lightsaber skills. She was already a skilled fighter with much field experience, and brought many valuable skills to the Sith.

Darth Treulos pressed a button on his desk and the holographic image of Urik Ragash appeared and stood beside her. Also known as Mandalore by his troops, he wore his silver Mandalorian Assault armour almost exclusively. Soora had yet to see the commander without less than his armoured helmet on, but knew the armour commanded the traditional respect of his people. He recently won the leadership of his people from the feared bounty hunter Boba Fett, a feat that would bring fame to anyone's name.

Darth Treulos spoke first.

"Lord Bulq, with the assistance of Mandalore, I have completed my battle plan for the assault on the Black Vornskrs. I would like to have the teams who will participate in the assault watch this briefing."

"Proceed," Soora said, taking his seat behind the desk. She slipped a datachip into the reader on his desk and a holographic image of a planet surrounded by asteroids appeared above his desk. Around it appeared fifteen holographic images of Mandalorians that were obviously watching the same image from a distant location. Soora noticed Mandalore was not among them. On the image appeared a mountain covered in a blue shimmer that generally indicated planetary deflector shields.

"We have learned there is a team out of Nar Kreeta hired to repair one of their six shield generators," She started. "Our plan is to hijack the shuttle and take the place of the engineers. Two hand-picked teams of Mandalorian commandos will sneak in to destroy the shield and power generators, one as backup for the other."

She hit a button, making the blue haze of the shield disappear.

"Once the generators are down, our fleet will enter the system and use repulsing tractor beams to push asteroids towards the planet."

Another press of a button showed several ships dropping out of hyperspace and asteroids moving away from the ships.

"Any escaping ships will have to face our torpedoes and the asteroid field before they can jump to hyperspace. We predict at least ninety percent casualties for the pirates, and minimal for our own."

"Why the commando teams?" Soora asked. "Few planetary defence systems can withstand asteroids."

"Few planetary defence systems are made up with six high efficiency shield generators backed by a quadruple-redundant power system that rivals the output of the main reactor from the second Death Star," She explained. "We could blast the moon out from under them and they'd still be able to float the mountain base away behind those shields. They built this base with defences in mind. Without destroying their shields, this attack would be useless."

"We do not expect them to react quickly to an attack," Mandalore said. "Their base has gone unchallenged for almost a year now, and they are becoming complacent behind their shields. Our teams will be able to infiltrate without difficulty."

"Excellent," Soora said. "See to it this plan is carried out."

He deactivated the holo, cutting the connection with the Mandalorian commandos and captains. Only his three lieutenants were left.

"How goes our plans to discredit the Jedi?"

"I have learned through our spy of several diplomatic missions that Jedi have been dispatched on to core planets that are displeased with the Alliance's inability to support them," Lord Krak spoke. "I will see to it that we have agents in place to frame the Jedi in various crimes that will inspire the populations to hate them."

"Good," Soora said. "Urik, ensure cargo ships of foodstuff and raw materials are ready to augment Lord Krak's plans."

"Of course," Mandalore said. "I will also prepare some Mandalorian diplomats to go along with the ships."

"Be sure the Jedi do not get killed," Soora said darkly. "We want them discredited, not martyred. One Jedi martyr can swing support away from us."

"Yes, Lord Bulq."

"Next, I want you to stage an assault on our shipyard on Mandalore with some of our Sith wielding Jedi-coloured lightsabers," Soora commanded. "We will broadcast this on the Holonet at an opportune time."

"I will see to it," Krak said. "But we should have the shipyards damaged as well. Minor damage, nothing we can't repair, but it will strike the message home if any ships come to investigate."

Everyone fell quiet for a moment.

"I have another idea, Master," Krak said. "We have noticed the Jedi are gaining support within the various clusters of the galaxy, especially those that are more self-sufficient than others. Corellia, Hapes, and the Empire to name a few. While Pellaeon has an almost fanatical following and the Empire is growing to love the Jedi, much like on Hapes with the Queen being a Jedi, we believe we can disrupt their support in Corellia."

"How so?" Soora leaned forward, genuinely interested.

"Thracken Sal-Solo," Krak smiled. "He has contacted us expressing his dislike of the Jedi. He believes the Mandalorians can better serve his people, and he has some personal dislikes of the Jedi. All he asks is for us to arrange his election as the leader of the Corellian sector."

"He could become a valuable puppet," Soora agreed. "Arrange a meeting with him. I also want to meet with Cal Omas. See to it, my friends. The galaxy will soon be ruled by the Sith again."

-

"I'll say one thing," Squeak whistled in awe. "You can shoot."

Roshi hit his fiftieth target dead-centre at one kilometre and scowled.

"I can't believe we're attacking pirates. Kriffin' Sith don't know how to pick targets." He blasted five more targets in rapid succession, missing by mere millimetres from the middle. "Why are we allied with these fools?"

"They're the only ones who can really stand up to the Jedi," Squeak said, taking a shot at some targets at four hundred metres and barely hitting the outer ring on each. "Look, man, I don't like them any more than you do, but they are useful. I don't want to go up against a lightsaber, but they seem to like that stuff."

Roshi grunted as he played with a few settings on his blaster, dialling back the power of each blast and setting it to burst mode. The custom designed weapon could alternate between single sniper blasts from each of the five barrels, and one blast with all five barrels at once at full power to hit targets as far as two kilometres away reliably. At reduced power it could fire one, two, or all four barrels at the same time with a fully automatic rate of fire between five and twenty bolts per second with an effective range of four hundred metres. The burst setting fired all five barrels with a point-two second delay between each barrel's shot with each trigger pull. In five-barrel sniper mode the blaster had enough firepower to severely damage Mandalorian iron, and could slice through durasteel like nerf butter. He looked back up and blasted each of Squeak's targets almost as an afterthought, then switched to long range again and picked off some kilometre-and-a-half targets with his uncanny accuracy.

"That briefing we just had was a joke," He slapped a new power pack into his blaster and shot a piece of fruit hanging from a distant tree.

"The plan looked good," Squeak said, slowing down and finally hitting his targets in a respectable distance from the centre.

"The plan was good, yes," Roshi thought over some of the finer points of the plan and grudgingly agreed to their ingenuity. "It's the fact that we're going to be…"

"I thought we all agreed the plan was not to leave that room," The distinctively arrogant voice of Mandalore came from behind Roshi and Squeak.

"Mandalore!" Roshi exclaimed, and both he and Squeak fell to a knee.

"Up," He commanded, and the two Mandalorians stood. Mandalore took position beside Roshi and drew his blaster pistol, silently picking off targets as if the other two had disappeared. Roshi winked at Squeak, shouldering his sniper rifle on the strap and drawing his pistol as well. Squeak's eyes went wide and he shook his head, but Roshi gave him a cocky grin.

"Mandalore, care to go shot-for-shot?"

The Mandaloran leader turned his helmet slowly and regarded Roshi for a full minute as if he had never seen another human before. Squeak backed away and left the shooting range, as if he was afraid that Roshi would explode under Mandalore's glare, but Roshi just looked back as if he found an interesting statue in a park.

"If you think you can keep up," He growled.

Roshi activated the training scenario, setting it for level twelve. He drew his pistol fired his blaster at the recognition target. Targets around the range would light up red, and the first to hit them would get points based on distance. The recognition target identified the specific frequency of Roshi's blaster with a chirp, and Mandalore shot the target. A moment later the initiation tone sounded, and a few targets let up. A flurry of blaster bolts later and the score board lit up.

Mandalore 2, Roshi 3

"Not bad," Mandalore grunted. Several more targets let up, and again both warriors fired with stunning accuracy.

Mandalore 6, Roshi 6

Roshi and Mandalore exchanged glances for a moment, and blasted their next set of targets at the tone.

Mandalore 10, Roshi 9

"Left handed," Mandalore said, slapping the blaster into his other hand. Roshi flipped the blaster in the air just as the next tone rang, and caught it in time to steal another five targets.

Mandalore 13: Roshi 13

"You sure about that?" Roshi asked with a wide grin. They both switched back to the right hand as the computer sounded a double tone, indicating a two minute free-for-all where the targets would light randomly and the first one to hit would score.

"I don't believe it," Squeak returned at the end of the two minutes with the rest of the team, and they all stood dumbfounded at the sight of the scoreboard.

Mandalore 104; Roshi 152.

Roshi slapped a fresh power pack in his blaster and turned to Mandalore.

"Best out of three?"

"I suppose it would be foolish of me to threaten you," Mandalore said thoughtfully.

"Well, if you thought you could try telling me off for divulging plans, I do have a rather thick skull."

Mandalore laughed softly and walked away, leaving a stunned silence among the entire commando team.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Tall, dark haired, and radiant green eyes described the human bounty hunter who walked Soora's office. Clad in a leather armour outfit crossed with two bandoleers, one containing various grenades, the other blaster clips, and an identical blaster on each thigh, the bounty hunter sat on Soora's desk upsetting various stacks of flimsy and writing instruments.

"Shou' ge' yerself ome chairsss," He swallowed the wad of nerf jerky in his mouth. "Bit more hospitable that way."

Soora merely looked up from his disrupted desk, and used the Force to shove the intruder against the wall. He gingerly picked himself and regarded the Sith through new eyes.

"I think we both have different ideas of hospitability, Rogan," Soora said. "Tell me your report on Jacen Solo or I will deem you unworthy of my time."

Rogan put a hand to his throat and started pacing, as if moving around would make himself a harder target. "The kid's hard to find. He's hidden himself well, but I've got some clues. I found out his ship docked on Gallinore and the security tapes showed him boarding it. The ship filed a flight plan to Tattoine, but never showed up there. I think it switched transponder IDs and went somewhere else."

"That's all you have?" Soora asked. "I'm paying you for dead ends?"

"Did I say that was it?" Rogan asked, looking Soora in the eye. "No, no, I'm just getting to the good part. A ship matching the description of the _Solo Quest_ by the name of _Nicta's Chariot _appeared in Chiss space soon thereafter."

Rogan put his hands on the desk, leaned closer and whispered. "He's in the Unknown Regions."

"So he's hiding?" Soora asked, hardly impressed by this young man's hunting skills.

"Who knows?" Rogan asked, going back to his pacing. "But that's where I'm gonna look for him."

Rogan finally noticed the view behind Soora's desk and rushed to the window.

"Woah, nice digs you got here!"

Soora sighed and walked up beside the bounty hunter.

"Yes, yes," Soora said. "It lets me keep an eye on everything."

"Look over there," Rogan pointed into an otherwise hidden area of a significantly reduced garden and nudged Soora with his elbow. "Some of your kids are making out over there. Bet you love watching 'em."

"What I enjoy doing," Soora growled, restraining his anger for the sake of the most successful bounty hunter he had come across yet. "Is watching the training of our students. From here I can see various classes being held to monitor our progress."

"Nice. What kinda classes you doing? Think I can learn a few things?"

"Lightsaber combat and destructive uses of the Force are hardly the sort of lesson I would want a bounty hunter to learn."

"I like destructive, though," Rogan grinned.

"Out," Sorra pointed to the door, finally losing as much of his patience as he felt safe. "And don't come back without Solo."

Sekava found, a week into his training, that he was exceptionally gifted with the Force. So did everyone else. In his first week he advanced beyond the level that some had after months of training, and did not appear to be slowing. He was soon lifting not only dozens of coins, but desks, chairs and even fellow classmates. He had discovered a natural aptitude towards telekinesis, an almost innate comprehension of it that surprised everyone of his lack of prior experience. And with surprise came apprehension among the students who had been training much longer than him.

Especially a particular Twi'lek female who nearly beheaded him during his first day on Ossus.

Her name was Hashi, a former slave girl from the mines of her home planet who escaped in a cargo container full of ryll a year after the Vong war, and had been drifting around the galaxy for about two years before Soora Bulq himself had found her. She was one of the most trained students still in the Academy and she hoped to reach the rank of Sith Lord soon – the equivalent to a Jedi Knight. She quickly became interested in Sekava, but unlike others, she decided that he was more valuable to her as a friend than an enemy.

Hashi and Sekava shared a commonality that they drew from to bond – they were both loners in the Sith Academy. Hashi was feared because of her skills with a lightsaber and her status of near-graduation whereas Sekava was outcast by the others because of his rapid growth in the Force. Perhaps the others thought that by neglecting him he would be unable to compete as well. Sekava did not mind, as it gave him the chance to work as he pleased. He was not here to socialize; he was here to train.

The only other person that would spend time with Sekava was little Morris, who followed Sekava around like a little lost bantha cub. He could not tell if the farmboy was following out of friendship or fear – many of the things asked of the students seemed to frighten Morris, and Sekava often heard Morris crying himself to sleep at night. Sekava was one of the few people who did not take pleasure in tormenting the little redhead, but neither did he show a desire to comfort the child. It was likely due to this indifference that Morris seemed to like Sekava.

However, one benefit to Hashi was that Morris was afraid of her, so he kept clear when Sekava was around her.

Sekava was talking to Hashi in her room about his life before he ended up on Nar Kreeta when a loud knock came at her door. He quickly sat up and moved to a chair across the room so whoever it was would not have seen her stroking his brown hair as he lay with his head on her lap.

"What?" She yelled at the door venomously.

"Hashi, baby," A sleazy sounding red Twi'lek opened the door. "You never – who is that?"

"Sekava," He introduced himself. "Who are you?"

"Zaren Far'ya," The Twi'lek said. "Hashi's mate."

"Go kriff yourself, Zaren," Hashi sneered. "I'm no more your mate than your gimpy lekku is useful."

"I don't have a gimpy lekku," Zaren said reasonably.

"You will if you don't get out of my room!"

"Better watch yourself, Sicky," Zaren said with narrowed eyes. "Hashi has a bit of a temper sometimes. She might be more than you can handle."

She shoved at him with the Force, which he deflected, but he quickly left the room and slammed the door.

"Let me guess," Sekava said, resuming his position on her lap. "Long history, don't want to tell it."

"I'd rather shove my lightsaber through his heart."

-

Sekava barely took two steps towards his room as he left Hashi's when a blaze of red hair tackled him around the waist.

"Morris?!" Sekava asked. "Let go!"

The boy reluctantly pulled himself away from Sekava's leg, and Sekava finally saw he was choking back tears.

"Come here," Sekava grabbed the boy's wrist and quickly ushered him into his room down the hall before anyone could see them. He locked the door and had Morris sit down cross legged on the floor, for he still had no furniture. Sekava sat likewise in front of him. Morris immediately buried his eyes in his palms with his elbows on his knees.

"Okay," Sekava said. "Spill it."

"I c-c-couldn't lift the le-e-e-af," Morris cried. "They got s-stun staffs and kept hitting me until I did."

Morris sobbed harder and bawled louder until Sekava finally slapped him on the side of the head.

"Hey, Morris, snap out of it," Sekava said, and Morris finally stopped crying, but looked like he had been betrayed. "Acting like that here will get you…hurt."

He was going to say "killed," but he found he could not be entirely truthful to the boy. It seemed like such a shame that he was picked up by the Sith to be put through things he neither had the heart nor desire for all because of a gift that he did not know about. He could see in the little farmboy's eyes the realization that he had made a mistake coming here.

"I just want to go home," Morris moaned softly and retreated to his own room.

Sekava closed the door behind Morris and fell against it, sliding down with his back against the door. An hour later Sekava finally stopped himself from crying. It was at that moment he decided he had to get Morris off Ossus and to the Jedi.

-

"That has to be one of the stupidest things any Mando has ever done," Parmis said with a wide grin as he finished loading his armour into his equipment bag. "Challenging Mandalore to a duel, and then _beating_ him?"

"A Mando's gotta practice," Roshi said with a cocky grin as he dismantled his rifle and placed the parts in a scanner-blocking case. "And, I can't help it if he kept choosing my targets after I already shot them."

"Your modesty is overwhelming," Blade said sarcastically as she sharpened her sword. Her otherwise packed duffel sat at her feet, containing her heavy blaster, sidearm, and her armour.

"At least he didn't kill you," Lanos said seriously. "You insulted his honour by beating him."

"No," Roshi said. "I taught him that he has an area to improve on in his already near-perfect skills."

Everyone started at him for a moment.

"Yeah, I'm pretty lucky," He agreed.

"Has anyone seen my data cables?" Squeak asked, frantically tearing through his duffel and strewing the contents across the floor of the equipment room. "I think I left them behind."

"Right here," Trigger said, throwing a bag of cables at Squeak's head. "You did leave them behind, but I grabbed them."

"Thanks, Trig," Squeak melted against a wall in gratitude, opening the bag and putting the wires with specific pieces of equipment.

"Hey Trigger, what part of no bombs did you not understand?" Parmis asked, spotting a bag full of explosives of all sorts, and Trigger's distinctive black armour leaning against a bulkhead.

"How're we supposed to blow the base up without bombs?" Trigger asked in his deep voice, suddenly looking dismayed at the prospect of not being able to take his choice weapons with him. Parmis pointed at the tool kit beside Trigger's armour in the corner.

"It's a sabotage mission," He said. "We rig the stuff to blow up on its own when they turn it on. Now get those explosives out of there and pack your armour."

"Oh, I was going to wear that," He said.

"Hey, bantha brains, what part of the 'we arrive in disguise' part of the plan did you not get?" Blade shouted at Trigger.

"Isn't our armour a disguise?"

Everyone shook their heads and returned to their tasks at hand.

"It'll be another ten hours until we arrive," Darth Treulos entered the equipment room in her usual miserable mood from the hallway leading to the cockpit. "Why are you packing now? The other team is sleeping. I want you all well rested."

"I'd rather my people find out if anything is wrong now than in ten hours," Lanos said, packing the helmet of his gold armour into his duffel. "A well prepared team is a team that comes home."

"And I'd rather wake up and eat instead of trying to shove my blaster into this case," Roshi said, trying to squeeze the last barrel component into the case for the fifth time. Darth Treulos almost started to speak, perhaps to suggest somewhere else to shove the blaster, but Parmis handed her a full duffel bag.

"This is your armoured pressure suit and blaster rifle," He said. "I suggest going over it to make sure the fit is good and make any final adjustments."

"Thank you," She sneered, grabbing the bag and marching out.

"What a happy lady, that Darth Hideous," Squeak commented once the door closed behind her, referring to Roshi's nickname for her that stuck like industrial adhesive. "Do you think she was dropped on her head as a kid?"

"More like she hasn't had any action in ten years," Trigger grunted, trying, and failing, to shove a canister of tear gas into his duffel without Parmis noticing. "Likely scared the boyfriend off."

"Yeah, she probably killed the guy herself," Roshi said with a wince as he massaged his throat.

"Or she's suffered a horrible loss in her life and fell into despair and unhappiness that resulted in her eventual disregard for life and began to use her Sith abilities to inflict her pain unto others as a way of coping with her loss," Parmis said philosophically, drawing silence from everyone.

"Nah," Blade said after a few moments, returning attention to her sword. "She was dropped on her head. Look at the scars."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After their initial meeting, Sekava was surprised how often he came across Zaren. It seemed like the Twi'lek was following him around everywhere, trying to find a reason to mess with him even though they never noticed each other before they met in Hashi's room. On his way to telekinesis class taught by a young Zabrak Sith Lord that went solely by Ced, Sekava found himself shoved sideways into some other students. After he calmed the angry students and helped them pick their things up, he saw Zaren disappear into the classroom with his entourage. Zaren's friends, whose names Sekava had not yet learned, snickered as they followed him in.

Sekava finally moved his way into the class, and found the last available seat – right beside Zaren. No doubt rested in Sekava's mind that the Twi'lek had planned the situation when he saw a broad grin greeting him.

"Good," Ced said in is unnaturally mellow voice that seemed out of place among the Sith. "Now that we're all here I would like you to work with the person beside you. One person will try to lift an object, while the other will try to prevent the other from doing so. Begin."

"I hear you're not too bad with TK, Sicky," Zaren commented once the noise level in the class escalated. "But you're just a little kid in it compared to me."

"We'll see about that," Sekava said, lifting a rock on the desk with his mind and looked at Zaren expectedly.

A slight tap with Zaren's mind dropped the stone with a solid thud on the desk.

"Too easy," Zaren yawned, and lifted the rock. "Your turn."

Sekava assessed the rock with the Force, stretching out his perceptions. He could push the stone down and try to overpower Zaren, which may be possible, or...

He cocked his head on an angle, looked Zaren in the eye with a smirk, and sent the befuddled Twi'lek soaring against the nearest wall.

"What was that?" Ced called out in an unusually harsh voice amongst the class' chorus of laughs. "Sekava, what did you do?"

"I made him drop the rock," Sekava explained, pointing to the rock now sitting peacefully on the desk. "You never said how we had to prevent them from lifting it."

Ced told the class not to attack their partner, but to focus on the partner's control over the object.

"Smart, Sicky," Zaren sneered as he pulled his chair back up to the desk. "Real smart. Your turn."

Sekava lifted the rock, and again he found he found himself unable to pick the rock up for more than a second.

"Ha!" Zaren grinned. "Beat that. My turn."

Zaren lifted the rock and spun it on two axes to show off. Sekava assessed the Twi'lek's attempts, and decided he would try to use his telekinetic abilities to push the rock downwards. He gave it a good hard shove, the mental equivalent to a downward push with the palm, and was rewarded by the rock moving three-quarters of the way to the table. Zaren gasped in surprise, and shoved back as hard as he could. The rock found itself caught between both men's push, not budging more than a millimetre in either direction. A few moments later, the rock shattered under the stress of two strong minds pushing against it in opposite directions. The shards fell to the desk as neither could telekinese that many small objects at one time.

"I suppose that's a tie," Zaren reflected bitterly.

"I don't know," Sekava grinned. "It looks to me that the rock is down. Well, what's left of it."

"Cute," Zaren sneered. He got up in search for a new rock to use.

In Zaren's absence Sekava took a moment to reflect on his past failures, and what happened when he was forced to drop the object. He had sensed a small push against the part of his mind that he used with telekinesis, a subtle nudge that distracted him long enough to break his concentration.

_If it worked against me, maybe it can work for me_, Sekava thought. When Zaren returned with a new rock, he placed it on the table and Sekava focused on lifting the rock. Sekava stretched out with the Force and sensed the part of his own brain that was being used to hold the rock up. He knew he may not be able to overpower Zaren for long based on their previous attempt, but it would provide a good start.

Zaren had slapped the rock down again before Sekava even finished looking.

_Hey there, little guy_, Sekava thought at the telekinesis part of Zaren's brain once he finally found it. _Now how do I distract you?_

He thought to his class on illusions and mind tricks, recalling a lesson about distracting the eyes, how one had to make them see a desired illusion to fool them. He decided to use that same technique, making that tiny part of Zaren's tiny brain think the rock had been lifted, making its need to work disappear. Being lazy, like all of nature, the little section of brain accepted Sekava's illusion that the rock was being lifted, and it relaxed itself with pleasure that its task was being completed.

The rest of Zaren's brain had absolutely no idea why the rock would not lift itself, as hard ask he focused on it.

"Something wrong?" Sekava asked with happiness at the look of extreme frustration on Zaren's face.

"What are you doing?" Zaren demanded, angry at Sekava's success against him.

"Aside from winning?" Sekava asked, happy that Zaren was utterly baffled by his eyes telling him what his brain told him was not true. "Not much. What are you doing, aside from losing?"

-

Roshi was sitting beside Darth Treulos in the co-pilot's seat staring out at the asteroid field when Lanos and his counterpart on the other team, Gerik, entered the cockpit. Lanos stopped to look out at the field himself, momentarily startled by the sheer chaotic beauty of the asteroids as they tumbled their way through their self-destructive existances. Occasionally two or three would impact each other and send out a starburst of mineral rich rocks that glistened in the distant starlight. Amid the asteroid field was a red-grey oblong planetoid that was their destination.

"Hey Lanos, we're just about there," Roshi said cheerfully. "We're almost in position to contact the base."

"Excellent," Gerik said, dressed in his red armour and flexing his hands in anticipation for the upcoming battle. "My team is ready to deploy."

"So's mine," Lanos growled. "But don't forget that we go first."

"We will stick to the plan," Gerik replied, angered at Lanos' apparent insubordination. "Just make sure you do as well."

"Quit your bickering," Darth Treulos ordered, and then pointed at Roshi. "You, fool, contact them."

"Only because I live to serve the Sith," Roshi said sarcastically, flipping the transmit switch before she could retaliate. "Attention Black Vornskr base, this is the slave ship _Gweedos_ with the shield technicians you requested out of Nar Kreeta. I am transmitting our creds. Please transmit docking and navigational instructions."

"_Gweedos_, this is Black Vornskr control," A miserable woman's voice responded. "Please wait while we check your credentials. Do not go anywhere or our defences will open fire."

"Acknowledged," Roshi transmitted and sat back.

"Can you be any less annoying?" Darth Treulos scowled at Roshi.

"Hey, I said I'm sorry," Roshi said defensively. "I know we got off to a bad start, but I'm willing to start over."

"If I could invest for every time these two try killing each other," Lanos said to Gerik. "I'd make Fett look like a poor kid on the street."

"Shouldn't they have answered by now?" Gerik grunted.

"Don't know," Roshi said. "I'm picking up some serious comm traffic going on around the planet."

"This doesn't look good," Gerik said. "Let's get out of here."

"Relax," Lanos said, calm as a napping sandpanther. "They're obviously not…"

"…going to let us get out of here alive!" Gerik growled. "We should leave while we can."

"We'll be fine," Darth Treulos sneered at Gerik. "Go back with your team."

"_Gweedos_, this is Black Vornskr," The woman's voice returned. "Please follow the nav beacons. If you stray from the path, you will be destroyed by our satellite defence grid."

"There you go," Lanos said smugly.

"What satellites?" Roshi asked, setting the navicomputer to identify the beacons that were being activated and looking at Darth Treulos. "You never said anything about satellite defences!"

"Must be new," Darth Treulos said. "We'll have to figure out how to take those out, too."

Ten minutes later the ship came down on final approach, and they finally saw why this base was so feared. Fifty high-powered defence turrets, fifty ion cannons, and six planetary shield generators were readily visible to the naked eye on the top of a mountain. Inside the mountain was the pirate base, and Roshi suspected there to be underground torpedo launchers and a plethora of other hidden weapons.

As Darth Treulos manoeuvred the ship into the docking bay, they saw over a dozen cargo ships being loaded up with various forms of contraband, and at least two dozen snubfighters. In all, it appeared to be a shipping operation of at least a thousand people.

"Wow," Lanos commented, looking at a stack of crates being loaded onto a ship. "I haven't seen that much spice in one place since before Kessel was taken over by the Imps."

"Get to the loading ramp," Darth Treulos ordered as she settled the ship onto the docking bay floor. "They don't look like they enjoy waiting."

Roshi and Lanos left to collect their gear and wish Garik's red-armoured troops well, and then joined the rest of their team at the boarding ramp. A moment later Darth Treulos appeared with her equipment bag and she lowered the ramp. Seven guards were waiting with blasters pointed them, and an eighth holding a datapad.

"Credentials?" The one holding the datapad held out a hand without looking up. Lanos stepped forward to supply a datachip with their details. She slapped the chip into the receptacle on the datapad, and a moment later she handed it back.

"Welcome to the Black Vornskr base," She finally looked up and the guards dispersed. "This way."

She led them down some winding corridors and up several floors to an empty room with a holographic model of the base already active.

"This is a schematic of our base," She pointed at the bottom of the model to four boxes proudly. "These are the power generators far below the surface, the backbone of our quadruple redundant power system."

She then pointed to the top at six glowing blue boxes.

"And these are the shield generators. There are six generators total, and we can be completely protected with just two running, but quite safe with only one."

She pressed a button, and one of the boxes turned red. "Generator Four is why we asked you out there. We can't seem to get it to stabilize since our installer decided to try running away and got himself vaporized by our defence net. Get it running, and we'll pay you well. Fail, and we won't."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll get it going," Lanos said, ignoring the implied threat and trying to act like an impatient cocky engineer. "How do we get out there?"

The woman pressed some more buttons, and a corridor lit up leading to an airlock about two floors above, then she handed him a keycard.

"Pressure suits are in the cabinet behind you," She said. "This will get you through the airlock. Don't forget to close the airlock door on the inside before you open the outside one."

"Why, what will happen?" Roshi asked, drawing a very odd stare from her.

"What do you think will happen?" She asked.

"I think the big guy behind you is going to knock you out so we can go blow up your shield generators."

"You…wha…?" She barely had a chance to turn around to face an elbow mashing her jaw hard enough to twist her head around the way it came and cause her body to crumple to the floor in a twisted mess of arms and legs.

"Annoying woman," Trigger grunted. "Let's blow something up."

"Suit up, everyone," Lanos ordered, locking the door and returning to his duffel bag. "Squeak, plug in and find out whatever you can about that satellite defence network."

Darth Treulos pulled out a comm link and tuned in an encrypted frequency.

"Team One, the generators are below as we suspected," She announced. "They have four generators so proceed with Plan A; we're working on Plan C."

"Acknowledged, Team Two," Garik replied. "We're going after the power generators."

A few moments later Squeak found what he was looking for.

"The defence grid is remote activated," He explained as he hastily affixed his armour with Roshi's help. "There are three communication disks on the surface that can each send out the activation command. Without a steady stream of commands, they fall inert."

"Excellent," Lanos said. "That'll be our secondary target. Let's move out."


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Let's see what else you can lift, Sicky," Zaren sneered at Sekava, shoving him with the Force and sending him stumbling. Sekava would not dare fight Zaren, as he and his five friends who were chasing him all carried lightsabers. "How does it feel like to get praise for showing me up now?"

He shoved out at Sekava again, but Sekava used the Force to deflect it with a telekinetic shove.

"I'll tell you what," Sekava said, pointing to the Sith starfighter sitting on the nearby landing pad. "I bet you your lightsaber that I can lift that starfighter."

Zaren looked surprised. The Twi'lek knew Sekava had not lifted anything that size and was sure to fail, but there was a chance he might actually pull it off.

"Lift it," Zaren said. "And spin it around and put it down without damaging it. If you fail, you'll be my slave for a month."

"Deal. But you forfeit if there is any interference."

Sekava marched off towards the starfighter with Zaren and his friends in tow. He was angry, but that only served to strengthen him. The starfighter looked bigger up close, almost frighteningly so. He walked around it once to look it over, and to stand on the opposite side of it from Zaren. He reached out with the Force and caressed the hull of the ship as he had with now-countless objects. The act of taking such a large object into his mind already started to exhaust him, but he knew he could not fail.

He had respect to earn. Without respect, a Sith was nothing.

He thought of Zaren and his other stupid classmates, and how they tormented him. He drew his anger into his body and used it to refresh his mind, to empower his grip on the starfighter. It suddenly popped up a metre off the ground and rose up two, three, four metres. A flicker of his anger shoved one end of the starfighter around so it begun to spin. Sweat poured down his face into his eyes, threatening to distract him as the starfighter continued its spin, finally back to the start of its rotation. He fell to one knee from exhaustion as he stopped the rotation, and he slowly lowered the ship down, finally releasing it a handspan from the ground. It dropped to a halt on the ground, easily absorbing the impact with the landing shocks.

Sekava stayed down on his knee, panting, realizing he just beat Zaren. He enjoyed the moment, and finally stood up. He staggered around the starfighter and found Zaren standing there with his lightsaber lit.

"You want it," Zaren sneered. "Come and get it."

"Coward," Sekava sneered back, still exhausted from the telekinesis.

Zaren walked towards Sekava, lightsaber held threateningly high but found a wall blocking him.

"Quite the feat for such a new recruit," An insidious voice came from behind Sekava. A Weequay, the only one among the Sith, stood behind him.

"Master Bulq," Sekava dropped to a knee.

Soora yanked Zaren's lightsaber to his hand and examined it.

"Dueling outside training classes is forbidden for students, Young Zaren," Soora said. "You know the rules well, yet you continue to bully those who are of no threat to you. Quarrelling amongst ourselves is not the way the Sith will become strong. There is a time and place for everything, and you have broken one of our greatest rules. This new recruit understands our rules, and I have no more patience for you."

With a gesture of Soora's hand, Zaren's head snapped to an odd angle and he fell lifeless to the ground. Sekava could sense the fear radiating off Zaren's friends as they looked at his lifeless body.

"I hope you have all learned his lesson," Soora sneered, scaring Zaren's friends off. "Young recruit, stand and tell me your name."

Sekava stood, and now noticed Darth Krak was smiling with pride behind Master Bulq. He looked into Master Bulq's eyes to show his confidence.

"My name is Sekava."

While Sekava showed confidence to Master Bulq, he did not quite know how to interpret the look returned to him. If he had to guess, he would suspect the Sith Lord looked apprehensive, as if he recognized Sekava from a bad dream. The expression lasted barely a second, making Sekava wonder if he really did see it, and Soora smiled.

"I see, young Sekava," Soora handed him the lightsaber. "Learn the ways of the lightsaber well and you will become a powerful Sith. Treat it with respect, and it will never fail you."

Soora turned and walked away, but Darth Krak approached Sekava.

"You are lucky to be alive," Krak said with a hearty laugh. "Meet me after midday meal, and I will start your lightsaber training."

Krak walked away, following after his master. Sekava could hardly believe his luck. He gained the respect of their leader, and he earned a lightsaber!

He looked at the handle. It was like any other he had seen the students around the Academy carry. He knew that building a lightsaber was among the last of the lessons he would learn in his training towards Lordhood, and that once he built his own he would pass his training lightsaber to a student he deemed worthy by trial. As he examined it, he noticed the grip contained a latch that could be opened, one that would only be seen by someone examining it closely. He carefully opened it, and within saw a list of names – obviously those who had carried the lightsaber before him. There were four names on the list. The last – Zaren Far'ya – was obviously the dead boy just behind him. The first one, however, was the most surprising to Sekava – Melven Krakmore.

-

A messaged blinked and bleeped on Soora's desk, waking him in its demand for attention. He was sleeping in his throne, not having realized he was tired, but he did not get angry when he read the message. Instead, he smiled.

_Cal Omas will meet you in two days on Coruscant._

-

Roshi struggled to adjust the pressure suit fit over his air-tight Mandalorian armour, trying to make it more comfortable, but soon resigned to the fact that nothing could really be done.

"Stop fidgeting," Darth Treulos ordered as they approached the airlock.

"You're not the one wearing armour under a should-be skintight suit," Roshi muttered.

"Remember, it's a disguise," She said impatiently. "Try to make it look normal."

"Normal?" He asked. "These guys have to be pretty dense to not notice how bulky we all look."

While Roshi, Squeak and Blade were relatively thin compared to Trigger and his massive muscles, Roshi still felt all the Mandalorians looked like Gammoreans shoved into toy X-wings.

"This is the worst disguise ever!" Squeak said.

"Shut it," Lanos ordered. He offered the security guard the badge, and they were all ushered into the airlock. A few seconds later the air was sucked out, and the outer door opened.

"Apparently they are pretty dense," Blade commented.

"Just weak minded," Darth Treulos replied arrogantly.

"Focus everyone," Lanos' voice came through the channel. "Here's the game plan: We break up and sabotage each generator in groups of two. Parmis and Blade take generators one and six; Squeak and I will take two and three; Roshi and Trigger take four and five. Miss Treulos, if you would oblige to sabotage some of those laser canons and the communication arrays?"

"Since you asked so nicely," She replied sarcastically and set off on her own.

Lanos tapped his forearm twice indicating to everyone to switch to the secondary frequency, and then for them to head out to their targets.

"Finally we can chat without that Sith bugging us," Lanos said as he walked with Blade to generator one. "The easiest way to sabotage these things will be to sever the power flow out of the main capacitor. Once that thing builds up to eighty percent the shield would normally activate in a burst of energy, but if they get past a hundred they'll blow. The whole thing should take all of ten seconds for these high-efficiency things, so they won't know what's going on until it's too late. Even if they do shut it down, they won't be able to fix it."

"Sounds good," Parmis acknowledged. "We should switch back so Darth Hideous doesn't know we're avoiding her. You know how she gets."

After a few grunts of acknowledgement, they changed frequencies and nobody spoke until they reached their primary destinations. While Trigger worked on the shield generator, Roshi assembled his sniper rifle and removed the outer pressure suit. Trigger had already unceremoniously torn his off, leaving only the reinforced cuffs around the wrists, ankles and neck hanging onto him. The plan was to fight their way back to the ship in the confusion of the Mandalorian assault fleet arriving, so the pressure suit would only get in the way at that point. He replaced the blaster pistol in his hip holster and readied Trigger's weapons for him.

"Team Two, this is Garik. We hit some resistance at the power generators. Two generators are rigged to blow and we split up to get the other two. We didn't lock the panel under the ship after we cut through the floor, so they might have found the ship. They know we're here! For Mandalore!"

"Wonderful for them to let us know they're going to die," Roshi said to Trigger as he handed over the blasters and tool kit.

"That's why you never wear red on a mission," Trigger said. He switched to the team frequency. "Four's good to blow. We're heading to Five."

"Three down," Parmis tallied. "Keep it up guys."

"Keep sharp, Team," Lanos called in his gravely calm voice. "We're at Gen Three and we have four guards watching. Lightly armed; they look like scouts. Nothin' Squeak can't take care of."

"Confirmed," Blade said. "Five guards at Six with some pretty feisty hardware, but we'll have this thing ready to go in five minutes or so."

Roshi and Trigger approached generator five and crawled over the last dune before the generator. They looked at each other, then back at the generator.

"Uhhh…we've got about thirty space troopers and four AT-ST's at Five," Roshi announced.

"This would be a lot easier if I had grenades, eh, Parmy?"

-

Sekava entered the cafeteria with his newly acquired lightsaber on his belt, ignoring the stares from the students around him. Obviously Zaren's friends had already spread word about what happened, but Sekava did not care. All he could think about was a nice big plate of food and the upcoming lessons with Darth Krak.

"Isittrueisittrue?" Morris came running up to Sekava, and squealed with delight upon seeing the lightsaber clipped to his belt. "Oh, Sekava, that's amazing! Can I hold it?"

"No," Sekava took his food and made his way to a table in the back corner of the cafeteria, away from everyone. The excited redheaded farmboy followed enthusiastically and sat across from him.

"How are your classes going?" Sekava asked.

"Okay, I guess," Morris sighed, obviously deflated about having the topic of the lightsaber dismissed so easily. "They're so hard and nobody gives me a chance."

Sekava looked around and saw everyone in the cafeteria was talking loudly to each other with nobody in earshot, and decided it was safe to tell Morris.

"I want to get you off Ossus."

"What?" Morris shouted, drawing several stares, which quickly ignored him when they realized who it was.

"Shut up, will ya?" Sekava growled. "Are you trying to get us killed? You don't belong here, Morris. I want to get you to the Jedi."

"How?" Morris asked. "They'll kill anyone trying to leave and even if we try there are no ships leaving! It's impossible!"

"We'll figure something out," Sekava mumbled. "Until then, keep it quiet. This is too dangerous to let out – for both of us."

"Gotcha, you can count on me!"

"Count on what?" A sly female voice asked. Sekava looked up to see Hashi, and barely noticed Morris run away. Hashi took his seat across the table and started snacking from the plate. "I hear you took care of Zaren. Thanks, but I really wanted to do him in myself."

"Wasn't me," Sekava said around a chunk of meat. "Master Bulq did him in."

"That's how the story goes, but I didn't want to believe it," She said. "Shame, more people would've liked you if you did it yourself."

"I couldn't stand up unarmed against six people with lightsabers," Sekava said in shock. "Nobody can. If Master Bulq didn't show up, I would've been running and not looking back. Screaming would be optional."

"Hmm," Hashi stroked his jaw with a slender finger. "I've heard stories of ancient Sith fighting against armies bare handed. I'm sure we could learn to do the same."

"Yeah, not anytime soon," Sekava pushed her hand away with his fork and shoved some vegetables in his mouth. "w're 'ardly da 'est ov da Siff."

A telekinetic slap on the back of his head nearly made him choke.

"Don't ever speak to me with your mouth full again," Hashi warned. "You sound like a retarded Gungan."

"'Orry," Sekava swallowed hard and stood up. "Lord Krak offered to teach me some lightsaber stuff after dinner, so I'd better get going."

"I'll tag along," Hashi rose and smoothly slipped an arm around his waist. "I think he could teach us both a few things."


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Roshi and Trigger surveyed the troops at shield generator five trying to determine the best course of action, but without explosives and with only two long range weapons they were short on ideas.

"We should split up," Roshi said. "One of us climbs along the ridge to…"

A burst of static cut him off.

"Parmis?" Blade shouted. "Frak! We've been ambushed! Watch…"

Another burst of static hit the radio wave.

"Focus on your objective," Lanos ordered. "We can't help them till we help ourselves. Squeak is almost done his sabotage. We'll check them out when were done. Treulos, you still out there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Her bored voice replied. "No resistance at the turbolasers and comm relays. These things are easy to shut down with a lightsaber. Done five turbos and the entire communication grid already."

"Good work, but can you help out Roshi and Trigger?" Lanos asked. "They've hit some heavy resis…"

"Lanos?" Trigger called out. "Lanos, you there?"

"He's been hit!" Squeak replied. "I'm done rigging it, but they're…I gotta go!"

"Kriffen pirates!" Trigger said, starting to get up. "We gotta help them out!"

"Not so fast, big guy," Roshi pulled him back down with considerable effort. "We've got four of the generators rigged to blow, and only two of the power generators. We have to take out at least five for the assault force to be successful."

"We can't just leave them!" Trigger shouted.

"We can't help them!" Roshi shouted back. "We don't know what they're up against. They could have a garrison of AT-AT's out there! There's nothing we can do against that. We have to finish our mission, _then_ we can do what we can to help. There's no sense throwing our own lives away when the fleet is counting on us!"

"Fine," Trigger said, making Roshi wish he could see through the helmet to see if Trigger was really convinced. "How do we take out this generator?"

"Why don't you just shoot the damned thing?" Darth Treulos's voice asked. "The sabotage was supposed to be unknown, but there's no need to be discrete now."

"Where should I hit it?" Roshi asked.

"Hit the main power conduit and support rods between the base and the dish." She replied. "If that sniper rifle is as powerful as you say it is, you should be able to knock the dish off entirely. They won't be able to fix it before the fleet gets here."

"Will do."

Roshi adjusted the focus on his sniper rifle and zoomed in on the power conduit. There were five stems holding up the dish, one at each corner of the cubic base and one in the centre, but only the centre one contained the power conduit. The scope analysed the material of the conduit casing as military grade durasteel plating that rivalled the hull plating of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

"I don't like this," Roshi said.

"Just blow it up," Trigger responded.

"I don't think Blade's minicannon could blow that conduit. This thing won't even dent it."

"Hit the other ones," Trigger suggested.

He refocused the scope on one of the other stems and the scope indicated it was regular durasteel. He quickly checked the others and set his blaster for maximum power.

"Thank Mandalore for cost cutting manufacturers."

Four quick shots destroyed the four pillars holding up the disk, but it did not budge.

"Maybe that centre one is tougher than we though," Roshi commented.

"Well, I'm out of ideas."

"They're not!" Roshi pointed at the AT-STs that started lumbering at their position.

"Shoot the centre post!" Trigger exclaimed.

"It won't dent that material!"

"Shoot below it!"

"What?"

"The casing isn't as strong!" Trigger said. "Hit the casing and blast the conduit from the inside!"

"Why didn't you say so before?" Roshi demanded, aiming his rifle as Trigger let loose with his blaster rifle at the approaching troops. He hit the casing, but upon inspection there was only a tiny hole in the metal.

"Keep shooting!" Trigger shouted, blasting some faceless pirate's head off with his oversized assault rifle.

Roshi fired again and again at the same spot, then at the surrounding area.

"It's not doing anything!"

Suddenly the entire generator exploded, taking out the AT-STs and half the pirates with it.

"Now can we help the others?" Trigger took off without even waiting for a response.

"Moron," Roshi took aim and shot the remaining guards clean in the chest before setting after Trigger. "Darth Treulos, generator five and the guards are neutralized."

"Good. I found Parmis and Blade. They were unconscious and I've taken out the generator. We'll meet at generator six. Be alert: the fleet arrives in fifteen minutes, and I'm leaving before then. With or without you."

-

Soora Bulq, travelling as Marvis Cree, a Mandalorian Diplomat, entered Chief of State Cal Omas' office with an escort of two Mandalorians. They were actually Sith, but Mandalorian armour was quite capable of disguising such a fact. They were both equipped with blasters that had enough room inside the stocks to hide their lightsabers inside. Soora did not need them to have lightsabers available as much as he needed some available for himself. He did not expect any hostilities, but he was not stupid enough to walk into a situation unarmed.

"Chief Omas," Soora bowed to one knee, as per Mandalorian custom. "It honoured me when you responded to favourably to my request of an audience."

"Of course," Cal nodded, unsure what to do with the outstretched hand he offered now that his guest was down on a knee with his head bowed low. He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. "Please, have a seat. It is always my pleasure to meet an ambassador in the interests of peace."

Soora took his chair as Cal sat down on the opposite side of the desk.

"I have to admit, I am quite curious to know why you chose now to make contact," Cal said. "It has been a month since our planets started receiving shipments from Mandalorian Space for almost no apparent reason!"

"It was our intention to gather goodwill, as to not appear hostile any longer," Soora said silkily. "We wished to prove our intentions before making promises that would otherwise fall on deaf ears. I trust our shipments are being well received?"

"Yes, of course," Cal looked at a report. "So far we have rebuilt three minor shipyards, seven manufacturing facilities, and countless homes. The foodstuff alone has saved almost a hundred million lives."

"I am very glad to hear that," Soora said. Of course he was glad. Repaired manufacturing capabilities would aid the Sith once they take over the Alliance and incite war against the Jedi. "But to my real reason for coming here: We, the Mandalorians, would like to submit our formal request to join the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances."

"Obviously I cannot make a formal statement to that effect," Cal said with a smile. "But I believe the chances of your acceptance would be high considering the help you have already provided. Decisions of this nature are made by a majority vote in the Senate."

"Yes, of course," Soora smiled back. "We merely hoped that the Chief of State would throw his support behind us."

"Unfortunately," Cal's smile drained away from his eyes, but remained plastered to his mouth. "I must appear to remain impartial. There are some concerns that must be addressed as well, and my role does not allow me to be sided on such matters."

"What concerns would those be?" Soora asked, trying to add as much curiosity and as little malice behind the words as he could. Perhaps Jacen Solo had detected the Sith and warned everyone before he vanished…

"Firstly, you attacked a planet stronghold of not one, but two of our allies," Cal said. "Hapes, and Ossus."

"Ah, yes," Soora said. He had his answer prepared. "We believed Ossus was abandoned, and we moved in to occupy it. Could you hardly blame us to turn down such a valuable planet when we discovered it would be abandoned? The open plains will provide us with much needed farmland to aid everyone concerned. When we arrived in orbit we were surprised the Republic fleet attacked us, and we had to defend ourselves. Unfortunately, we overestimated our offensive attack and destroyed the fleet. I hope you can extend our sincerest condolences to the families of those on the ships.

"Hapes was a mistake, I do admit. That was not an authorized attack. One of our commanders attacked trying to settle an age-old dispute with the Hapans. That will never happen again, I assure you."

"I see," Cal sighed, leaning back in his chair. His mind weakened by the trials of office, Soora hardly had to nudge Cal into believing. This seemed to be the beginning of a relationship Soora was very much going to enjoy. "As you know, there have been some…tensions between our member planets over the last few years. Some planets want resources to rebuild themselves after the Vong war. Other planets want to grow and replace certain manufacturing bases. Take Fondor for instance – their massive shipyards were all but destroyed during the war. They want to become what they once were, but Belgaroth has built shipyards more expansive than Fondor's were from their own manufacturing facilities. We can't support two shipyards in that sector, but the Fondorians are begging to have their shipyards rebuilt. They are concerned that without the shipyards they will be unable to compete economically with Belgaroth.

"The Belgarothians, however, do not understand why they should give up their shipyards now that they have the chance to become a galactic power. Ten years ago, nobody even heard of Belgaroth, and now they're stealing all of Fondor's best ship designers!"

"I see," Soora said. "So if we came in offering Fondor support…"

"It might anger Belgaroth, with their new shipyards, and spark open hostilities," Cal finished with a kind smile. "Officially our policy is to help everyone out. It is a delicate balance I am trying to play here, succeeding in some ways better than others. Some days the senate can be more exhausting than competing in a podrace without the pod!"

Soora chuckled politely at the weak joke, internally wishing he could remove the man's head with his lightsaber and assume the role of Chief of State himself. Sith politics were always much easier than democracy.

"What of the Jedi?" Soora asked. "Surely they have been helping mediate these problems."

"Ah. Yes." Cal sat up straight. "The Jedi have been busy rebuilding themselves as much as we have. Their assistance has been invaluable, sometimes stopping entire sectors from separating, but there have been some concerns raised about their involvement in politics."

"Is it true a Jedi killed a planetary Prime Minister?" Soora asked. "I didn't think such a thing was possible!"

"It is _not_ true," Cal said darkly. "Leia Organa Solo would never kill a planetary leader. She has been in politics far too long to know the repercussions of such an action, and she is a close friend of mine. Trust me when I say I know her well enough to know she would not assassinate anyone."

"I was not accusing, Chief Omas," Soora said with a disarming smile and soft chuckle. "On the contrary, such assurances make me feel even safer being here on the stronghold planet of the Jedi."

"Yes, of course," Cal smiled and nodded. "I didn't mean to imply anything. As I said, these last years have been stressful ones. One would think leading the galaxy through a war would be hard enough. Peace is another beast entirely."

"Speaking of Leia Organa." Soora could not help himself. He had to ask, and he had to risk nudging the Chief with the Force. "Is it true her son has disappeared?"

"Jacen has…not been seen for some time," Cal admitted. "The Jedi play their cards very close to their chest. They certainly do not tell me everything about the whereabouts of each of their members."

"Well, I do hope that Solo is found soon," Soora said with a grin. "Now, on to important matters; when might we arrange the meeting with the Senate of Alliances to discuss our…?"

"Not on my watch!" Kyp Durron and four other Jedi charged into Cal Omas's office with lightsabers drawn. Two of the Jedi had already relieved Soora's men of their blasters and pinned them against a wall. Kyp and the other two took station around Soora, ready to apprehend him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Cal leapt form his chair. "Master Durron, have you gone _mad_? Stand down _immediately_!"

"This Weequay is a Sith Lord who goes by the name Soora Bulq," Kyp said, twitching his lightsaber at the being still seated and unmoving.

"I assure you his name is Marvis Cree, a diplomat from the Mandalorians!" Cal said, spitting with rage. "How _dare_ you interrupt a diplomatic meeting with a potential ally?"

"And if I were a Sith," Soora asked with a faint smile. "Would I not be waving a lightsaber around like you are? Search me; you will find no weapons of any kind. I am but a simple diplomat."

"Do it," Kyp ordered, and one of the Jedi pulled out a portable scanner. He waved it over the Weequay and showed the reading to Kyp – Negative. Not even a vibroshiv.

"Satisfied, Master Jedi?" Soora asked. "May we continue our meeting in private?"

"I can sense the Force in this one," Kyp said to Cal. "I _know_ who he is."

"And even if I am the person you claim I am," Soora said smoothly, "You would not strike me down unarmed. Is that not the way of the Jedi?"

"My eye is on you, Soora," Kyp growled, waving his Jedi back. "I know your Sith are behind this Mandalorian expansion. Your plan will fail."

"Out!" Cal ordered Kyp. "I will speak to you of this tomorrow."

Kyp and the others retreated without another word, but Cal suspected they had not gone far.

"My apologies, Ambassador Cree," Cal said sincerely. "I never imagined he would make such accusations."

"I am a Mandalorian, Chief Omas," Soora said with a smile. "Threats by greater men come my way daily. Now, about the meeting with the senate?"

"Yes," Cal calmed down with a slight nudge of the Force and took his seat. "Unfortunately you may not meet with the senate. Our rules dictate that we must come to the conclusion of our own accord. Presumably any proponents of the Mandalorians would argue your case for you, and any opponents would argue against."

"That hardly seems fair to us!" Soora exclaimed. "Should we not present our own case?"

"This is the way of our Charter," Cal explained. "Surely you understand that when you wish to join a club, you must abide by the club's rules."

"Indeed," Soora replied, standing up. "Then I look forward to the next time we meet – hopefully as mutual members of the Alliance."

"As do I, Ambassador Cree," Cal smiled.

_Fools._ Was all Soora could think as he left the office. _You played right into my hand._


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sekava and Hashi arrived in the training facility, recently repaired from the raid the Sith made to secure the planet. They found Darth Krak easily enough as he was the only person in the building. When they arrived, Krak was practicing some movements that Sekava could not follow with his eyes and had a determined glare in his eyes that made Sekava uneasy. He suddenly stopped.

"You," He pointed his blade at Hashi without even looking at her, as if her presence was not worth looking at. "Leave."

Sekava and Hashi exchanged glances, and she quickly departed. She knew better than to upset a Sith Lord.

"Do not get attached to that woman," Krak warned once she was gone. "Do what you will with her and discard her. She will only cause problems."

"I understand," Sekava said, despite the fact that he did not. "I have come to learn from you the ways of the lightsaber."

"You have a question," Krak smiled as he towelled the sweat from his bald head off.

Sekava opened the concealed hatch on his lightsaber, and pointed to the first name.

"Was this yours?"

"That is not my name," Krak said emotionlessly. "But it once was."

"_Melven?_"

"I ditched that name for a reason!" Krak exclaimed, a glint of mirth mixed with his anger. "We are not here to discuss ancient history. Let us fight!"

He launched an unexpected wide overhand strike at Sekava's head which nearly cut through his head. Sekava jumped aside at the last second, almost gaining a long slash down his left sleeve.

"What the frak was that?" Sekava shouted. "You almost killed me!"

"Almost is the key," Krak grinned. "Use the Force, anticipate my moves, and dodge them."

Krak slowed down for training purposes, but after a few pointers he quickly had Sekava dancing back and forth, dodging and weaving around his blade with the grace of a skilled gymnast.

"Excellent!" Krak bellowed enthusiastically. "Now take up your blade and attack me. Give me your best!"

Sekava activated his lightsaber, taking a moment to enjoy the cool solid metal of the handle in his hands and the bright red blade. He awkwardly lunged at the centre of Krak's chest with a two handed strike, and received a nasty side swipe and a slap to the back of the head that sent him tumbling to the ground.

"A thrust to a centred opponent?" Krak asked in disbelief. "Are you trying to kill yourself? Put your weight behind an attack only when you're sure you can land it. Anything else is suicide. I'm trying to teach you how to fight, not how to kill yourself! Attack again!"

Sekava thought Krak's words over as he pulled himself off the floor, but the sting of embarrassment barely made them register. He realized he made a mistake, but was not sure how else to proceed.

_Doesn't this guy know I came here with a _blaster_, not a weightless stick of light?_

He stepped towards Krak with his blade in front of him then stepped forward quickly and made a powerful downward strike from above his head. Krak easily caught the blade with his held horizontally and pushed it back up.

"Yes, that is an overhead strike; very good," Krak taunted sarcastically. "Would you like to try a horizontal one now, or do you want to actually fight?"

Sekava took the diplomatic route.

"Master," He said, shutting down his lightsaber. "I would not presume to be able to fight at your level. I would like to ask if you could teach me some basics before we resume."

"If you keep seeing through my lessons," Krak grinned again. "I might start having you teach me. Very good. Shall we start with the basics?"

-

Two minutes of hard running brought Roshi and Trigger to generator six just as Darth Treulos was arriving. Parmis and Blade were still unconscious and in telekinetic tow, but seemed otherwise undamaged save some charring on their chest plates.

"What'd they get hit with?" Trigger asked as he crouched behind a dune and duck-walked up to his squad mates. "No stun bolt can get through our armour."

"Some kind of blaster-mounted ion concussion grenade," Treulos replied, "Never seen anything like it."

"Did you bring some with you?" Trigger asked, checking the diagnostic system in Blade's suit. Apparently satisfied, he moved to Parmis' side.

"Why would I?" She sneered. "I was too busy dragging them along."

"Oh, my head," Blade's voice appeared, and she started moving. "What happened?"

"You got stunned and I activated your adrenaline booster." Trigger explained. "Get up and join the party."

"Yessir," Parmis said as he dragged himself up while checking his blaster. "Whadda we got?"

At that moment Garik's voice whispered across the comm. "Lanos? Parmis? You guys there?"

"Parmis here, go ahead."

"I lost contact with the other group, and my team is all dead," A hint of fear, or excitement, betrayed Garik's otherwise calm voice. "I know three of the generators..."

A burst of blaster fire followed by static cut Garik off and Parmis hung his head.

"Garik was a good man," He said. Blade put a hand on his shoulder, and a moment later he looked up at Roshi and Trigger. "What's our status?"

"Five in spacetrooper gear guarding the generator," Roshi said from behind his scope. "Lanos is down but I think he's just unconscious. No sign of Squeak."

"Six guards, Squeak is in the dish," Darth Treulos said lazily. "There's a sniper on the far side. I'll take him out and you can get the rest."

She disappeared, sprinting off between the dunes and a flash of red appeared a few minutes later from where she pointed out the sniper. All four Mandalorians opened fire and reduced the five guards to smoking piles of meat in seconds. They rushed in to tend to Lanos. Parmis activated his adrenaline booster as Squeak extracted himself from the dish of the shield generator.

"I got it," He said in his jittery voice. "This thing's ready to blow. Let's go!"

"Not so fast, kid," Lanos grunted as Parmis helped him up. "Status?"

"All generators are rigged, except five, and there's a decent blind spot in their turbolaser batteries. The communication system is neutralized as well," Darth Treulos said, heading for the airlock without waiting for the Mandos. Roshi and Trigger followed without hesitation.

"What about generator five?" Lanos called after them.

"It went boom," Trigger said happily.

-

Soora Bulq watched the Holonews updates from the small office he kept on his personal shuttle as it departed Coruscant. The Mandalorian petition had hit the Senate with favourable results, but the forefront of news was the Jedi attack on the Chief of States's office. Mysteriously leaked information, which was not such a mystery to Soora, spoke of a crazed madman running the Jedi Order on his own and interrupting legitimate diplomatic missions.

Soora raised a glass of expensive sparkling wine to the journalist who gave the report before taking a sip and enjoying its distinctive flavour. He could not have planned a better event himself. How better to discredit the Jedi but by using their own discreditable behaviour?

A few moments after the news report turned to a commentary of panelists, a report arrived at his desk from Lord Krak. He skimmed it quickly, tuning out the bickering journalists. Four out of seven identified Jedi diplomatic missions had been stopped. Three had resulted in the populations rioting, the other demanding immediate withdrawal from the Alliance of either the Jedi or their planet. Of the other three missions to stop the Jedi, two had been foiled by Eriana Fostenon and the cursed Solo family, resulting in increased political support for the Jedi. The last had yet to be heard from either way.

Krak also reported the holo of the "Attack on Mandalore" was complete, awaiting Soora's orders for launch. And, finally, Thracken Sal-Solo was making his way to Nar Kreeta for a private meeting.

Soora issued orders to Krak to stay away from Fondor temporarily and otherwise congratulated their successes. He authorized the go-ahead for the Mandalore Holo and indicated he would set course for Nar Kreeta. After sending the message, he sat back and watched the rest of the Holonews, ready to taste the sweet fruit of his labour that was just out of reach.

-

"It's called 'lightning,'" The angry-looking Bothan growled. "Not 'sparking.'"

Sekava looked up at his instructor with a scowl, but immediately wiped his face of emotion. He had finally found an aspect to his training that he could not master immediately – Sith lightning. Nor could he learn it after two hours, either.

"Yes, Master," Sekava said humbly, and focused on his assignment again. The class standing with their backs to each other in the middle of a circular room with metal poles along the walls and were launching lightning, or sparks in Sekava's case, at the metal poles. Even Morris was able to perform the task satisfactorily. The spheres on the top of the poles gave each Sith a target that would not harm another student…until now. The Bothan saw Sekava's scowl.

"You dare to scowl at me?" He demanded, voice full of venom. Sekava was shoved across the room against the wall and pinned there by the Bothan's telekinesis. Sekava did not even try to fight back. "Everyone gather around. It is time to teach this insolent bug how to use the art of Sith lightning."

He unleashed a volley of lightning, almost as an afterthought, and Sekava twisted and screamed in agony. His limbs and back twitched and his head pounded from the electrical abuse, but he knew the pain was just starting. Sekava suddenly realized his face was pressed into the ground, yet he did not realize he hit the ground. This realization did little to help him as someone else hit him with a blast that threw him against the wall like a child's toy. Surprisingly, it did not hurt as much as the first, nor did the next dozen blasts he was hit with. Some were longer, some shorter, some hurt more than others, but before long Sekava's mind completely turned off, feeling the torment his body endured only as a distant pain that might have been felt by someone else. Before long a jabbing pain just below his eye sockets brought his eyes to the front of his head again to see the burry image of a Bothan's face.

"You are pitiful. You are weak. And you are no Sith."

"Go to hell," Sekava sneered, and shoved at the Bothan with all his effort. The Bothan was launched across the room with the speed of a runaway tram and hit the far wall with a wet thud. Shocked by his telekinesis, the other students started throwing lightning at him again, this time all at once. Sekava's anger seemed to shield his mind, and the lightning merely made him angrier. He lashed out with his anger, unleashing a maelstrom of lightning at the other students and sending them tumbling back against the walls. His anger did not stop, but his control over the lightning was lost. He started to electrocute himself as well as the others as the Force seemed to pull lightning out of him on its own accord. As his perceptions drowned in the pain, he distantly heard the screams of torment from his classmates, the groan of pain from his instructor, and could sense their futile attempts to stop him.

Then, all he knew was a soft beeping sound. Slowly the pain started creeping into his brain from his tormented body.

A hand stroked his face. It was soft, not unpleasant, but his skin twitched where it touched as if tiny shocks of static were bouncing from his face to the fingers.

"Uuh?" Sekava's voice did not seem to quite make out the words he wanted to say, but neither did he know what to say. His eyes still were not focusing, but the blur in front of him had head tails. Or a really funny hat.

"eeee?"

"That's right." Hashi's voice came back from the blur.

_At least my ears are working. _Sekava thought absently.

"Uuhnnnnd?"

"Master Fuzzy Face was able to put you in a stasis field and stop you from killing everyone." She said, rubbing his nose playfully with a finger. "Half your class is in the infirmary with you. They're not very happy."

Sekava grunted something else.

"You should be fine in a few hours," She said, gaining understanding through the Force. "Though that'll be before Master Bulq gets his paws on you! He doesn't like it when people try killing his students."

She lay down on the bed beside him and he could barely feel her body press up against him with his ravaged muscles, but could not do anything about it when his head rolled to the side. He was still paralyzed in pain from the clenched muscles across his body, but new pains found his heart when he saw Morris wearing bandages and an oxygen mask. The full extent of what he did started to hit him, the pain he caused to the others.

"Rest, dear," She whispered in his ear, not seeing the tears stream down his cheek. "With the power you have, I'll make you the greatest Sith the galaxy has ever known."


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Mandalorian team arrived at the airlock, but Darth Treulos was not there. The amputated body parts, disfigured bodies and score marks littering the walls and floor just inside the airlock indicated she had been there as clearly as a giant holo ad in the night sky.

"Someone should give that girl a trailblazer award," Lanos commented as he used the keycard he was given on the door. It immediately rolled back, allowing the team to step in. Two more swipes of the card and they were inside the facility once again. The hallway looked even more gruesome than it did through the airlock, and the stench of seared flesh did not help.

"Ooh, grenades!" Trigger said gleefully, pulling a bandoleer of concussion grenades and thermal detonators off one of the fallen pirates. Blade found herself a rather vicious looking dagger on another pirate, and Roshi collected power packs from the blasters.

"Squeaky, you okay there?" Parmis asked as he grabbed the smaller man by the shoulder. Squeak was swaying a bit at the sight of a small person about the size of a kid that had been cut from hip to shoulder, and whose lifeless eyes stared up at him.

"No," Squeak squeaked. "Let's get out of here."

"No argument here," Lanos said. "Form up, blasters ready, and shoot anything that moves."

The team snapped into formation with Lanos and Parmis leading, Trigger and Blade in back, and Squeak and Roshi in the middle. This formation would put their best shots forward with automatic rifles, their best defence and heavy weapons in behind, and the sniper rifle where it could help out in either direction.

They moved down the hallways, quickly shooting anything that moved in their path and making their way to the hanger bay following Treulos's horrific path of bodies. About half way to the hanger, everyone's headsets buzzed.

"The fleet's assault will begin in two minutes," Darth Treulos's voice sounded. "I've secured transportation. You have one minute, then I'm outta here."

"Understood," Lanos said. "I suggest we run!"

The team made their way along at a fast pace, and suddenly the entire facility lurched, sending everyone tumbling and skidding across the hallways.

"What was that?" Squeak asked, but another explosion rocked the facility and a glow panel crashed down on him. He shrugged it off easily and got to his feet.

"That was the power generators blowing," Lanos shouted over the emergency claxons. "Move!"

They ran down the hallway, right into a group of ten pirates with blasters drawn in a defensive position, entirely expecting the Mandalorians.

"Freeze and drop your weapons!" The leader shouted.

"Lurdo!" Trigger shouted back, chucking a concussion grenade at the commander's head and hitting him with enough force to knock him out before he hit the ground. Several blaster bolts were fired off, but they were no match for Mandalorian armour. The team started firing, but the grenade exploded, rendering all the pirates disoriented and confused. The team rushed through the pirates, bodily shoving them out of the way on their way to the hanger.

"I didn't know you spoke Ewokese," Roshi said to Trigger while they continued their run to the hanger bay.

"I trained some during the Vong war," Trigger grunted. "Picked up a few words when I was strapping bombs to their chests."

"Such a wonderful guy, you are," Roshi commented, blasting a pirate's head off as it peaked out from a doorframe.

"Yub yub."

"Hate to rush you guys, but the fleet is going to be here soon," Darth Treulos said. "I'm leaving in twenty seconds. Nineteen...Eighteen..."

"You'll stay until we get there!" Lanos ordered.

"Seventeen...Sixteen...Fifte..."

"Attention all personnel," A male voice came across the facility intercom. "A large fleet has entered our sector and is advancing on our base. All personnel to battle stations. Repeat, all personnel to battle stations."

"Krop!" Darth Treulos shouted. "They found me! I'm outta here."

"No you're not!" Lanos shouted. "Where are you?"

"The hanger bay."

"Where in it?"

"In a ship."

"You Sith kreetle!" Roshi could almost see Lanos's face burning red through the gold helmet. He shouted a list of profane names at her, then shoved open a random door on the left side of the hallway. He kicked the sole occupant in the chest and shot him at point blank range between the eyes for good measure. He moved over to the window on the opposite side of the room and could see the loading bay below. "Watch for an explosion, then bring the ship up. Trigger, use those detonators."

"Happily," The big man moved towards the wall and plucked three thermal detonators, setting them carefully at the bottom corner of the room. He ran back into the hallway and a plume of flame followed him a second later.

The Mandalorians rushed back into the room to find a gapping hole into the docking bay below, and a transport manoeuvring itself underneath the hole with the docking bay ramp open. Due to the angle of the hole, the ship was ninety degrees to the room. Several explosions shook the base, but not nearly as strongly as the first couple did.

"There goes the other shield generators," Trigger said blissfully.

A moment later a massive explosion knocked everyone to their knees. Two more followed quickly after, and then the air in the room rushed out.

"What was that?"

"The fleet is bombarding the planet with asteroids!" Treulos shouted. "Get on board!"

The entire team jumped onto the ship as quickly as they could, being twisted around by the artificial gravity of the ship and their momentum from the jump. A moment later the ramp started to close, and the ship shot out of a massive hole in the hanger bay at breakneck speed before the ramp was shut. Lanos and Parmis fought their way to the cockpit while everyone else strapped themselves in the passenger area.

"Are all the missions like this?" Roshi asked, clutching his stomach.

"Nah," Trigger said as he removed his helmet and scratched his nose. "Sometimes they get exciting."

The flight soon levelled out and after a few minutes the ship made the jump to hyperspeed. Several moments later Darth Treulos and an unhappy Lanos came to the back.

"Congratulations on surviving," She said with the air of someone doing anything but congratulating them. "As a reward for your survival you're being relocated to Ossus under my direct command."

"Oh, joy," Roshi said. "I'm starting to like you. Thanks for coming back for us. Can we throw a party for you?"

She merely growled at him and marched back to the cockpit.

"Wow, have you a way with the ladies!" Blade commented, looking up from inspecting the new dagger she found. "I'll start planning the wedding."

"Yeah, and I'll plan the funeral," Trigger chuckled.

"Don't bother," Lanos piped up. "With her, it'd be the same ceremony."

-

"Morris," Sekava called to the next bed, finally having regained his ability to speak. He could sense everyone else in the infirmary was asleep. "Morris!"

"Sekava?" The red-headed boy turned to face his friend. "What's going on?"

"We're in the infirmary," Sekava said. "We've both been hurt."

"I'm scared," Morris whispered. His eyes shone with tears yet to be cried. "What happened to us?"

"It doesn't matter," Sekava whispered. "I figured it out. I know how I can get you out of here."

"How?" Morris begged.

"I'll ask Darth Krak to teach me how to fly a Sith starship," He whispered. "There's room for two in them. After a week, he should let me fly it myself. I'll sneak you into it and ask if I can fly up to the Mando fleet in orbit. I'll dock there, you sneak out, and when you can, find a transport to jump on. You've learned enough to stay hidden. We can do this!"

"Come with me," Morris begged. "We could just escape together."

"It's a short range craft," Sekava whispered. "I can't leave. I have to stay. I have to…to keep training. They'll suspect if we both disappear, but they won't notice you. I'll just tell them you're hiding in your room or something."

"Okay," Morris whispered. "I guess it's the only way."

"Yeah," Sekava replied, glad Morris could not see the tear streaming down his cheek. "It's the only way."

-

Something bothered Soora about this Thracken Sal-Solo. It was a nagging feeling that he couldn't quite place, like nose tickle that would not turn into a sneeze. Upon seeing the face, despite being hidden by a beard, he finally placed it. This man was a Solo.

_Salsolo. Sal. Solo. _Soora reflected to himself. _Huh._

His burning desire to destroy Jacen Solo made him twitch every time he looked at Thracken and ache to destroy him. Reunited with his lightsabers, it took every ounce of restraint he had to stop himself from acting on his desires when he strode into the meeting room in the Mandalorian headquarters on Nar Kreeta.

"I hear you want our help," Soora said without preamble. He wanted Sal-Solo to fear him. He had no reason for niceties.

"And I hear you _need_ my help," Thracken replied with equal dislike of Soora.

_Apparently he thinks he's valuable than me,_ Both thought at the same time.

"I am told you want us to fix an election," Soora sat down at the far end of the room and looked across the conference table. "Why would I want to do this?"

"You put me in power and I'll let you Mandos have a base on Corellia for when you start taking over."

"Take over what?" Soora asked with false shock. "We have no desire to take over anything."

Thracken let out a bark of a laugh. "I know a liar when I see one. You've taken over Hutt Space. You've expanded to Ossus. I'm just seeing farther ahead than the idiots elsewhere. And looking ahead to how it can benefit my people."

"Well," Soora said after a moment of thought. "If that is what we eventually want to do, I suppose we could benefit from your support. Here is how we will swing your election: Your current opposition opposes the Jedi. We will deface the Jedi by making them kidnap someone close to you."

"Woah, wait," Thracken sat up straight and leaned on the table. "I thought…"

"Wrong," Soora said. At Thracken's confusion, he elaborated. "You thought wrong. You have a wife? A child?"

"A daughter," Thracken said, oblivious to Soora's mind trick. "She's just a kid…"

"We will kidnap her and frame the Jedi," Soora said. "Your opponent will fall because of his love of the Jedi, and Corellia will be yours."

"But…"

"We will allow you limited contact with her, and put her in a safe location until such time that you can consolidate your support."

"But…"

"Our troops will arrive in three days at night," Soora continued. "The next day you will give a prepared speech and reveal holorecordings of Jedi involvement. Your planets will support you and your opponent will be discredited, but if there are any signs of betrayal, you will forfit your daughter's life."

"I…"

"And you will be in my debt," Soora ended darkly. He left Sal-Solo stuttering to an empty conference room. If he could not destroy one Solo, he would take pleasure in destroying another.

-

The stolen cargo ship Darth Treulos and the Mandalorians used to escape the pirate base touched down on Ossus in the area designated for Sith operations. The hatch opened and Darth Treulos jumped out before the boarding ramp was even half way down.

"What?" Roshi yelled at her back. "I was just talking to Blade! No reason to be jealous!"

"You are so lucky you're still alive," Trigger chuckled as he walked past Roshi. He carried his black armour bundled together over one shoulder, and a case with his blaster and other weapons with the other arm. The other Mandalorians followed him out, some wearing their armour with just their helmets off, others carrying it like Trigger. The only common look the team shared was on their faces – the look that they would rather be anywhere but here.

A man in Mandalorian armour finished speaking with Darth Treulos and approached the team as she walked away at a brisk pace.

" 'Ello, Mates," The Mandalorian said in an exotic accent, probably from Onderon, handing them each a white piece of plastic. " 'ight-o. Y'all be in da same bunk o'er on dat sidda da 'omplex. 'eeres yer keys – 'ont lose 'em, an' Treylee 'ill see y'all soon. Yer otter stuff's 'ready dare. Go on 'ow."

While everyone looked at him with disbelief and confusion, Trigger was about to ask if the man had been shot (or needed to be shot) when Lanos thanked him and marched his team off to the far side of the facility.

They crossed through the Mandalorian segment of the camp and saw that the majority of their kin were infantry or trainers. Their team appeared to be the most experienced group of the bunch, making everyone wonder why they were even there. They arrived at their barracks, which was basically a converted half-cylinder storage shed with bunks on each sides, a pair of refresher stations, and an office at the back. Their equipment had already been shipped in from their last station and dumped on the beds haphazardly. Roshi collapsed on his bed in his armour and stared blankly at the ceiling while everyone else spent the next twenty minutes organizing and sorting out whose weapons and items belonged to whom when Darth Treulos arrived.

"Armour up and ready your weapons," She said. "Anyone not outside in two minutes gets to practice fighting against a lightsaber."

A minute and a half later they marched towards the Sith compound in full gear with Trigger still tugging a bandoleer of grenades into place across his chest.

"This was a Jedi base," Treulos explained as they walked through the facility. "Until a couple months ago the Jedi trained their runts here and planned their domination of the galaxy. They were moving to Coruscant when we attacked, and we caught them with their pants down. Now it is our base where we can train their enemies with their own equipment."

She marched them past various Sith students that gave them nasty looks unappealing to their youthful ages, and into a less used area of the base. They proceeded through a series of security doors and into a chamber with a table, holo display, and blackened transparisteel on the long wall opposite the door.

"We also house a secret here," Treulos announced. "Few of the Sith know about this, and to learn of it you must swear to the highest levels of secrecy."

Knowing the Mandalorians were aware she would enforce that secrecy with the tip of her lightsaber, and that they already knew too much to stop and ask their cooperation, she continued without pause.

"We have three high-ranking Jedi captive here," She flicked a switch and the transparisteel went clear to reveal three bodies hanging from some ropy vines hanging from the ceiling.

"That's Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade," Lanos whistled.

"Who's the other one?" Roshi asked.

"Kam Sulster," Darth Treulos said. "He was on the Jedi Council and was the head instructor at the Jedi Academy."

"They look pretty pathetic to me," Roshi said. "Why are you telling us? To prove that you guys can capture pathetic prisoners?"

"Shut it, Roshi," Lanos said. "Skywalker's prowess in combat is legendary. This is pretty significant. Why are you telling us?"

"You're going to be guarding them," Treulos responded. "We think the Jedi will make an attempt to free them, and it'll be up to you to make sure they don't. Feel free to talk to them, but don't damage them."

"That's it?" Trigger asked. "I wanna blow something up, not babysit some Jedi babies hanging from a tree."

"Maybe I'll put you on the Terentatek hunt then?" She offered.

"That sounds like fun," Trigger said. "What's a Terentatek?"

"It's a large beast that eats anything and has armoured scales that can take shots from a Star Destroyer. It woke up a week after we got here and has been eluding our best."

"That's my kinda beast," Trigger said with an insane grin that everyone knew he was wearing under his helmet.

"I have to agree with Trigger," Roshi said. "These guys aren't going anywhere. Hunting some giant lizard sounds like way more fun. Though I'd still rather be slagging some more pirates."

"You will do what your service requires," Treulos sneered and threw a datapad at him. "Here is your schedule. Don't let me come here without a guard by the doors again."

She stormed out of the room without another word.

"Any chance you'll give her up, Rosh?" Trigger asked, staring at the door she left through. "I bet she'd be wild in bed."

"Okay, we're all not going there," Roshi said while everyone stared at Trigger in disbelief. "Looks like you and I are first up, then Lanos and Blade in…no, this can't be right. Sixteen hours?"

Squeak checked the datapad. "Yeah, that's sixteen hours for your first shift. The rest of us are on eight hour shifts."

"She's playin' hard to get," Trigger said with an awed voice.

"I wish she'd just get lost," Roshi said, marching towards the security door. "C'mon, I brought my spare sabbac deck. Let's get this over with."


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: I will be on hiatus for the next three weeks because I'll be on vacation without internet. Posting will resume on August 9th.

Chapter 10

Soora had hardly stepped foot on Ossus when his lieutenants called him to an urgent meeting. He rushed into his office and found his two Sith and Mandalore waiting for him. Neither was stupid enough to comment on his delay, and simply started once he was seated.

"The assault on the Black Vornskrs was a complete success," Darth Treulos said. "We lost one Mandalorian commando team, but the other escaped. We were able to neutralize the defences in time for the fleet to destroy the base. No other casualties or losses on our side."

"Excellent!" Soora exclaimed. "Please tell me the rest of your news is equally favourable."

"Indeed," Krak spoke with his characteristic predatory grin. "We have reports from our spies on Coruscant that the Alliance is demanding blood for the Jedi's failures. The videos of the assault on Mandalore and of Kyp Durron's blunder have only been the start of the Jedi's problems. The Alliance is now preparing an assault on the Jedi Temple to put the Jedi under arrest until things stabilize. Apparently they believe the Jedi are a threat to the cohesiveness of the Alliance."

Soora had not smiled so broadly in years. Years of plans, schemes, and dreams were finally coming to fruition.

"An ally of ours on Coruscant is broadcasting the assault to us," Urik said, playing with a holodisplay. "If reports are correct, it should be starting momentarily."

"While we are waiting," Krak spoke slowly. "I have some unfavourable news to report."

"Oh?" Soora asked.

"I was in the medical wing last night and I overheard treason among one of our most promising students," Krak reported. "The one you saved from Zaren."

"Ah, that one. Such a powerhouse, that Sekava is. A valuable addition to us," Soora drew silent for a moment. "But we are too few to accept treason. Give him the chance to redeem himself. If he does not, fix the problem yourself."

"Yes, Master," Krak said emotionlessly. He noticed a flicker of interest from Darth Treulos, but would refuse to say anything even if he had the chance.

"I have it," Urik said. The holo image appeared, showing the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

A giant pyramid atop a giant pedestal, it was an obelisk amid a city of spires. The image showed a column of Alliance troops approaching from each side with a pathway. Before the troops could arrive at the tower, a ring of explosions fired off a quarter of the way up the obelisk, stopping the advance of the troops. A moment later an explosion of fire burst out from the ring and the entire Jedi Temple seemed to raise itself up.

"What is happening?" Soora demanded, slamming his fists on his desk.

The Temple hesitated a moment before a secondary burst of flame increased the rate of ascent and launched the building into the sky. The camera jerked as it adjusted itself hastily to follow the Temple as it soared into the sky like an ancient ballistic missile, tracking its progress until the Temple became a spec in the sky.

"What happened?" Soora shouted, throwing the contents of his desk at the holo display, shattering the screen. He reached deep into the Force and flung his desk against the wall with enough force to send half of it through the wall and bend the legs back. His throne met the wrath of his lightsaber, and if Darth Krak had not attacked and disarmed Soora, Urik would have been next.

"We don't _know_, Master," Krak growled. "And destroying your office will not change that."

"Find out!" Soora shouted. "Get out!"

It was an order the lieutenants could not refuse.

-

"What was that?" Darth Treulos grabbed Krak's arm when they were down the hallway and out of earshot from both Soora and Urik. "Has he gone _nuts_?"

Krak looked around to ensure they were safe, and pulled her into an empty room.

"Lord Bulq's condition worsens," He said to the little woman. "You have not been around him as long as I have, but sometimes he…needs protection from himself."

"Is he insane?" Treulos asked with enough concern in her voice to make it clear she was seriously considering the possibility, not just over-reacting. "He doesn't exactly seem all there, if you ask me."

"He is a clone," Krak said after a moment of consideration. "He told me once he was cloned from the body of a Jedi Master. I have heard stories that Jedi clones do not come out…normal."

"Like Joruus C'boath?" Treulos asked with a heavy dose of disbelief. "Great. This is just great. We're committed to a _lunatic_!"

"That fact does not leave this room," Krak ordered. "But you may be right. I suppose you didn't hear about Zaren?"

"No. Who is Zaren?"

"One of our most skilled students," Krak explained. "Or at least, he was. Soora killed him for breaking a rule of the Sith Academy. He said Zaren had repeatedly offended the rules, but nothing of the sort happened. That was the first time. At first I thought he killed Zaren to punish me for selecting him as an apprentice, but it didn't make sense. I think he's losing his grasp of reality."

"We might have to act against him to save ourselves," Treulos said.

"Such is the Sith way," Krak agreed. "But not yet. He still has his uses. We will keep this between us for now."

"Agreed."

-

Sekava accessed yet another document of jumbled letters and damaged images recovered from the Jedi database. During the assault on Ossus the Jedi had activated the auto-delete safeguard on the databank, but some residual data remained. Several Sith students were doing their best to comb through the information, searching for a nugget of information that might reveal a Jedi secret to gain favour with their instructors. So far, the purge was winning the battle.

"Find anything?" Hashi purred as she slipped her arms around Sekava and pressed her chest hard against his back. He took his eyes off the jarbled mess of letters on his datapad and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Nothing," Sekava said irritably. _And I'm not going to find anything if you keep nibbling on my ear!_

"Maybe we can do something else instead," She suggested playfully, sliding a hand down to his thigh.

"Here you go," Sekava said, removing her hand from his leg and pressing another datapad into it. "You can see if there is anything important in the medical files."

She withdrew immediately and bashed the datapad on the back of his head. To her dissatisfaction the datapad refused to turn off, so she hit him again.

"What was that for?" Sekava exclaimed, pushing her away.

"Testing the Force," She growled, plopping herself into a seat to Sekava's right and putting her feet up on his lap. "If it broke, I'd know there was nothing important on it."

"Hmm," Sekava grunted, returning to his datapad. After several minutes of having the general area of his upper thighs rubbed by her feet, the datapad hit him on the head again.

"Would you _stop_ that?" Sekava demanded.

"But it's so _boring_ here," Hashi drawled. "Come on Sekava, let's do something _fun_."

"You're worse than Morris," Sekava mumbled low enough that she could not hear. A couple seconds later she lit her lightsaber and started to trace his head with it, just outside of touching his hair and skin. He stopped reading as she hovered the blade at his eyes. He turned to glare at her after she waved the blade up and down a couple millimetres at a time to create a very annoying buzz.

"Please?" She pleaded, pulling the blade away and deactivating it.

"Fine," Sekava said irritably. "What do you want to do?"

Bounding with excitement, she dove forward and grabbed his forearm with a giant smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye.

"Let's steal some of those Mando speeders and take 'em for a ride into the forest where we'll be all alone," Her smile turned to a grin more commonly seen on a child being taken to a candy store for the first time.

"That won't help us stop the Jedi," Sekava said adamantly, turning back to his datapad. The importance of these Jedi files was enormous. He had to make sure he found anything that survived before anyone else. "If we find something, then we'll go."

"Sekava," The deep voice associated with Darth Krak came from behind him.

"Master?"

"Come with me."

Sekava got up and followed his master, leaving Hashi behind. She reluctantly called the discarded datapad to her hand with the Force and started reading it again.

When Krak reached a door down the hallway, he entered it and beckoned Sekava to follow. He walked into an otherwise empty room and a rather stern expression on his master's face. The door slammed shut behind him, giving him a start.

"I know what you are planning."

Sekava's heart sunk. He struggled to clear his mind, keep his thoughts on the data files, but he knew Krak was not talking about them.

"You will fix this problem, or I will."

"How, Master?" Sekava asked.

"Morris is in that room waiting for a special lesson," Krak nodding to the door behind him. "You will give it to him."

With that he started to walk out, but stopped himself.

"You are our most promising student. If it were not for that, I would not even give you the chance to redeem your treason."

-

About twelve hours, sixty sabbac rounds, several drunken battle songs to the tune of a couple bottles of smuggled Mandalorian moonshine later, Roshi and Trigger were sleeping against the security door that led to the holding chamber when Lanos and Blade came for their scheduled shift. Roshi's blaster rifle was crammed between his leg and the corner of the door with his head resting on the barrel, and Trigger was curled up in a ball hugging his heavy repeating blaster against his body like a lost lover. The rotation was designed so that there would be an overlap between shifts to double the guards when the Jedi were awake, but it seemed that there was no plan in place for sleeping guards.

"What I wouldn't do for a holoimager right about now, I don't know," Blade said.

"Better wake them up," Lanos said. "I'd rather not have the Sith find out about this."

"True," Blade extracted her sword. "But they make a cute couple."

She rapped the side of her blade on Roshi's helmet, and then on Trigger's. Roshi instantly jumped to his feet, but Trigger rolled over and mumbled some words to his blaster and made some motions against it that would have been inappropriate suggestions even in a bedroom with a mistress.

"I really didn't need to witness that." Blade sounded like she was about ready to revisit her last meal. "I've seen gore easier to take than that."

"You and me both," Roshi agreed. He kicked Trigger's helmet with a roundhouse kick that could wind a Wookiee. "Rontobreath! Get up!"

"Woah. Hey, man," Trigger adjusted his helmet and pulled himself to his feet. "Is our shift over?"

"Four more hours," Lanos said. "Which is four hours longer than you would've had to live if the Sith caught you two idiots sleeping."

"Sorry, Lanos," Roshi apologized. "But they shouldn't have put us on a sixteen hour detail after an op and nearly twenty hours without sleep."

"You're a Mandalorian," Lanos said coldly. "Start acting like one."

"It's just not fun here," Trigger said. "I can do fifty hours in a lightfight without batting an eye, but this is just plain boring."

"Let's have some fun then," Blade said. "The Jedi are awake."

She shoved past Trigger and Roshi and shoved the door open as the Jedi were being pulled up into the Embrace of Pain.

"Oh, look, Luke," Mara said. "It's the tin can collection. Just as dumb as stormtroopers but one for every décor."

Blade pulled her sword out and slapped Mara's head with the broad side.

"Wanna play some games, girly?" She asked, holding the blade to the hollow of her collarbone and using the broad side to pull Mara's chin up. "I could carve you up and feed some parts of you to your buddies here."

"I sense you have issues," Mara said knowledgably. "Let me guess: You had a buddy who was killed by a Jedi? No, wait. Let me think. I assassinated your granddaddy? That one's come up a couple times."

"Jedi slime have been killing Mandalorians for centuries," Blade said, pushing the blade against Mara's neck a little harder and twisting it slightly. "You don't seem to understand that sometimes that _hurts _after a few generations."

"I've never killed a Mando," Mara said nonchalantly, ignoring the pain in her neck. "Stormtroopers, Yuuzhan Vong, politicians, spies, governors, but never a Mando. Why don't you let me down so you can be my first?"

Blade tried to slash the vines of the Embrace, but Lanos grabbed her wrist at the last second.

"The former Emperor's Hand isn't the smartest person to pick a fight with," He chided her. "Especially now that she's a mother."

"You're no fun," Mara and Blade both said to Lanos at the same time, then glared at each other.

"Why are you here?" Luke asked.

"We're your guards," Lanos replied. His voice was indifferent, as if he would not care if he was playing cards or shooting at the Jedi rather than guarding them. He grabbed a bench and pulled it over to sit in front of the hanging Jedi. "We just wanted to get to know our charges a bit better."

"Oh," Luke said. The vines twisted his arms a bit, causing him to wince. "In that case, my name is Luke. I'm a Jedi, I have a kid, Ben, this is my wife, Mara, and I love flying X-wings. But won't say no to an old T-14."

"I'm Mara. The Emperor trained me as his best assassin and I told me to kill the guy I eventually married."

"I'm Kam, married, and I love sleeping in on weekends and playing sabbac."

"Wow, this is so very touching," Trigger said with false sympathy. "Let's let them loose and hunt them down. It'll be fun!"

Roshi took his helmet off and rubbed his eyes. He looked surprisingly tired, even when considering the long shift he just had.

"Oh quit it, will ya?" He said to Trigger. "They're prisoners, not pets. I bet they couldn't even walk if they were let out of that Vong contraption. That little one with the sandy hair hardly looks strong enough to sneeze without breaking a rib."

"I'm with Trigger," Blade said, still eyeing Mara. "I think they'd be a worthy hunt."

"More of a hunt than you can handle, I assure you." Lanos said. "Put your bucket back on, Roshi. This isn't a vacation."

"Yessir."

"I saw you in action once," Lanos pointed at Luke. "You took on an entire sail barge of Jabba's troops without batting an eye. A few of us were planning to take care of Jabba together after they dumped you into the pit, but you rebels beat us to it. You'd be worthy among the Mandalorians."

"My sister killed the slug," Luke said, hardly able to believe what his guard was saying to him. "I just provided the distraction."

"Still, your feats have only been better since," Lanos said. "I could welcome you among our ranks, if I wasn't sure you'd kill us in our sleep and try to escape. I could never trust a Jedi among us, but together we'd be a force to be reckoned with."

"We could offer you a place in the Alliance," Luke offered. "I have Cal Omas's ear."

"And leave the Mandalorians?" Lanos laughed. "Wishful thinking, Skywalker."

At that moment Darth Treulos entered the prison.

"You're lucky you're inside," She snapped. "Get out and watch the door. It's time I had some fun with the prisoners."

"Just don't start with the head," Roshi slapped her on the arm as he walked past on his way out. "The brain gets all fuzzy."


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

In the recently discovered Jedi War Room in the basement of the building holding Luke Skywalker's office, Soora Bulq poured over various reports. Since he demolished his office, this room replaced it as his base of operations.

The war room was circular with terminals lining the wall and a central holographic display. Able to show real-time data feeds of various planets or battles, it currently displayed Coruscant and the traffic around it, as well as various reports on several Sith insurgents planted on Coruscant. Soora read the reports with mixed feelings. One had blackmailed a pro-Jedi senator into voting for the Jedi Arrest Bill. Another had intimidated the Mon Calamari Senator to abandon his pleas for the Republic to stop requesting resources from the planet. Others, perhaps the most important of all, reported swaying stubborn senators to view the Mandalorian petition favourably.

Perhaps the most exciting of all showed political support for the Mandalorian petition in the forty to sixty percent range.

But that was not enough.

Use whatever means necessary to secure our position within the alliance. He wrote to his spies, mostly all Sith Lords below Krak and Treulos in his regard. The senators must accept the Mandalorians. Your failure on this matter will be your last.

-

"We have captive Jedi here?" Sekava's first reaction to this information brought a smile to Darth Krak's face.

"Not just any Jedi," Krak said. "Luke Skywalker, his mate Mara Jade, and Kam Sulstar. Three of the big names."

"Wow," Sekava stood captivated looking into the window of the cell, regarding the three Jedi hanging from the ceiling from some ropy-looking vines. Four Mandalorians stood guard, heavily armed with blasters, grenade launcher attachments, retractable blades, and one even had a Cortosis-weave sword. Even the heavily armed Mandos could not distract Sekava's mind from thinking of Morris every time he saw the woman in the middle. Her bright red hair hung downwards masking her face almost in the same way Morris' head had…

He pushed his thoughts back towards his instructor. "How did you capture them, and how are you keeping them?"

"Ysalamiri and the Embrace of Pain," Krak explained. "Ysalamiri produce a bubble of Forcelessness around themselves that make a Jedi, or a Sith, powerless. We brought the Ysalamiri close enough and a couple stun blasts did the trick."

"I still sense them," Sekava said.

"We only use the Ysalamiri when they're not hanging up," Krak explained. "The device holding them up is a rather useful Yuzzhan Vong invention. Effective at torture, but it isn't exclusively for that. It keeps them in a level of pain just high enough to break their concentration if they try accessing the Force. They are unable to use the Force, but we can use it on them. It is much more useful than an Ysalamiri."

"Wow," Sekava repeated. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Your next lesson," Krak smiled viciously. "Torture. It is time you learned how to gather information from an unwilling victim."

He threw open the door and boldly walked into the cell. The Mandalorians filed in after Krak, and Sekava took up the rear, closing the door behind him.

"When did this become take your kid to work day?" Mara asked, looking up from her vantage point a metre and a half off the ground. "Though if I were your kid, I'd probably kill myself. Going through life looking that ugly…"

"Jedi wench," Krak threw a blast of lightning at her that started her swinging back and forth, hitting her friends and causing them to receive some of Krak's lightning as well as it coursed across her skin. "Do you ever tire of your insolence?"

"Insolence?" Mara asked as her limbs twitched oddly from the lightning. "This is conversation. Insolence would be cutting your little baby buddy's arm off and beating you with it."

"That sounds like fun," Luke agreed, wincing from a sudden movement of the Embrace. "I think we should find a Wookiee to do it."

"I think I could do that myself," Mara growled.

"Yeah," Kam said, "But a Wookiee could beat him with his buddy. With just an arm we wouldn't be able to witness the uniquely satisfying event of seeing one person being beaten by another."

"Too true," Mara agreed with a look of extreme interest on her face. "I think a…"

Krak blasted all three of them with another volley of lightning.

"Thank you, master," Sekava said gratefully. "I was starting to wonder who was to be tortured."

"Oh, have mercy!" Luke suddenly screamed out with no emotion. "These bad lines, I just can't take them!"

Mara and Kam snickered softly as Krak's face twisted in fury, but Krak did not allow himself to be goaded. He turned to his apprentice.

"You will try to extract information about the Jedi safehouses around the galaxy from them. I will watch."

"Good luck," Mara shouted, drawing a chuckle from the Mandalorians at the door.

"I'll start with the overgrown womprat," Sekava pointed to Luke and ignored the spectators.

"Oh, I'm scared," Luke said with a quavering voice. "Kid, think about it. Palpatine went ten rounds with each of us and got nowhere. She even learned torture from him, and I've been married to her for ten years. There's nothing you can do to break us."

"Though I suggest if you don't shut him up, I might have to break him for a comment like that," Mara said with a glare at her husband.

"Hmm…Maybe I want you to," Luke said, throwing a mischievous wink at his wife. She giggled and forced a blush, and then they both turned back towards Sekava with deadpan stares. "Why waste your time with us? We're not going to tell you anything."

"I'll be the judge of that," Sekava said. He reached out with the Force and yanked on Luke's arms, twisting them back behind him more. He could feel the pain rolling off Luke, but Luke did his best to keep a bored expression on his face. If he could sense Luke's thoughts, he would know Luke was driving his mind through a training pattern, focusing on the moves and tolerating the pain as best he could. The Embrace actually loosened its hold on Luke when it sensed the increase of pain, and waited for him to relax.

"Stop it!" Mara yelled, drawing a wicked grin from Sekava. "By the Force, what is wrong with you?"

"It is rather painful, isn't it?" Sekava grinned, pushing slightly harder and drawing a grunt from Luke.

"No, no, no," Mara sighed. "You're doing it wrong. You have to squeeze the knees backwhen you're doing that, too."

"I don't know, Mara," Kam said thoughtfully. "That seemed to work pretty good on its own."

"I agree," Luke said in a pained but controlled voice. "It's hard to really tell unless you experience both. Kid, maybe you should try them out first. I'll be glad to show you."

Sekava looked like he swallowed a live piranha beetle. He released his hold on Luke and the Embrace tightened up again, bouncing its occupant around until he was swinging slightly.

"You obviously can take physical pain very well," Sekava sneered. "Now what if I look about inside your head?"

Sekava touched Luke on the head and reached in with his mind. He found himself standing in a desert, wind and sand blowing by and softly striking his face. He realized he was on the top of a dune amid a vast ocean of sand, an image inside Luke Skywalker's head.

"Pretty empty, eh?" Luke asked casually as he walked up beside the intruder wearing the immaculate white and brown robes of a Jedi Master and a polished lightsaber hilt attached to his belt.

"Not surprisingly," Sekava responded. "Tell me where the Jedi safehouses are. _Now_."

"That information is buried beneath us," Luke said, gesturing to vast ocean of sand around him. "Along with everything else in my head. You'll have to dig it out. But first, you have to get past me."

Luke ignited his lightsaber and stared at Sekava expectedly.

The Sith child grinned at his opponent.

"Your mind is weak, ravaged by the Embrace," Sekava said, igniting his own lightsaber. "Let's get this over with."

-

Urik strode into the War Room with a datapad looking for Soora Bulq, but the room looked deserted. He waited for a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darker room, and it took him a full two minutes to realize the Sith Master was sleeping on the central holodisplay, which somehow surprised him. Urik never knew Soora slept. He always saw the Sith in motion, always planning, always scheming, or always fighting. Never sleeping.

_He almost looks…peaceful,_ Urik thought. He examined the display screens in silence and quickly discovered a common theme – Jacen Solo. Every display screen contained pictures or written articles in various languages about the young Jedi Knight. Sith intelligence had tipped media networks across the galaxy that Jedi poster-child Solo had disappeared, starting a media frenzy to locate him. The media, in their infinite greed to pry into the lives of well known individuals for their own profit, was more than willing to do the work of the Sith. While the media thought they were reporting solely to interested individuals across the galaxy that had nothing better to do than read articles about people with whom they would never be associated, Soora had taken to tracking their progress personally. Between the datapads thrown about and the many display screens in the War Room, nearly a hundred articles were displayed for Soora's viewing at any given time, but all of them said the same thing; nobody knew where Jacen was.

Urik laid his datapad beside Soora's head and set a light to blink on it so Soora would see it as soon as he woke up. He left the room silently as it was best not to disrupt a sleeping Krayt Dragon, even with good news. The datapad displayed the front screen title of the Coruscant Journal:

Mandalorians Accepted into Galactic Federation of Free Alliances

Senators astound with 72% in favour.

-

Sekava finally broke his connection with Luke after a mental pummelling from being inside the Jedi's head.

"Son of a Sith!" He lashed out with lightning, blasting Luke back a metre on his vines.

"You got that right!" Luke shouted back over the pain.

"_Give me your secrets!_"

Luke's body convulsed and twisted in pain from the lightning and embrace, but his mind was not overcome. In fact, he was laughing at Sekava's attempts, and they were not laughs of insanity. He was genuinely amused. Sekava finally started blasting Mara and Kam as well, releasing all his frustration with Luke into the three blasted Jedi.

"Stop!"

Sekava barely heard the word, but chose to ignore it. He must show no mercy; he must prove to his master that he will not let the Jedi rule him.

"I said stop!" Krak yelled, and used the Force to shove Sekava across the cell and break his concentration. "If I wanted them dead, I would not have given them to you to do it so carelessly!"

Sekava sneered at his master.

"They are powerful, even within the Embrace! Their minds must be weakened first!"

"Maybe you're just not the powerful little Sith you think you are."

Sekava looked around wildly to see where the voice came from, and realized it was not a Jedi or Sith who spoke. It was one of the Mandalorian guards.

"What did you say?" Sekava snarled. "Who said that?"

"Name's Roshi," The Mando in blue replied, pointing to himself with his thumb. "Pretty pathetic that you can't break a Jedi hanging from the ceiling. I'd have them singing their tenth round of Corellian tavern songs in half the time you've wasted."

"You think that's true?"

"Buddy, you want the truth?" Roshi mocked, "You can't handle the truth."

"That sounds like a line from a bad Face Loran movie," The largest Mando said from behind his black helmet. "Which is exactly where this guy belongs – a bad comedy."

Sekava's face turned a bright red hue and he started trembling with anger.

"You moron," Another Mando, this one in gold armour, piped up. "Loran did _drama_, not comedy."

"No wonder his holos weren't funny," The black-clad guard replied.

"Come on, Kraky let me at 'em," The last Mandalorians, this one a female, pulled out a nasty looking knife, tossed it in the air and caught it at the tip of the blade. "This is painful to watch!"

Krak saw the danger in his apprentice's anger and ordered the Mandos out, hand on his lightsaber. They eyed the lightsaber cautiously, and all four Mandalorians retreated.

"Try again," Krak said simply, returning to his place leaning against the wall.

Determined not to fail, Sekava fell back on his best trick – telekinesis. He focused on Kam, and _squeezed_. Kam gasped in pain, unable to resist the pressure as his chest compressed in on itself. A rib snapped in his side with a sickening pop and tears ran down his face.

Kam gasped, feeling the broken rib twist in his side like a squirming womprat. Luke and Mara's hid their shock well, but Sekava felt the horror that radiated off them at seeing the torment their friend suffering, and Sekava knew he had them. His face twisted into a nasty grin.

"Tell me the location of a Jedi base!" Sekava yelled at Kam, twisting the lose rib further and squeezing pressure on Kam's arms as well. His skin faded to yellow as the blood was forced out, and quickly started to discolour as the tissues became damaged.

"No!" Kam exclaimed, his exhaustion evident.

"NOW!" Sekava screamed, punching Kam in the head repeatedly in a blind fury.

"No, no, no, NO!" Kam screamed with each punch as if his words could push away the abuse.

"Tell me and I'll stop!" Sekava said, moving to Kam's side and shoving his thumb against the broken rib.

"Dantooine!" Kam shouted, tears pouring down his cheeks in a steady stream, his head hung low.

"Lies!" Sekava screamed back, redoubling the telekinetic pressure on Kam's body, squeezing his legs. The blood in his body started to well up in areas, pushing out where there was no pressure as it had nowhere else to go. He grabbed Kam's head by the ears and pulled at them as hard as he could, holding Kam's face close enough that their noses touched. "Dantooine is empty, you fool! We know there is nothing there! _Tell me the location of the base!!_"

"Bastion!" Kam screamed, unable to bear the pain anymore. Sekava saw an image flash through Kam's mind, a tall woman with long white hair surrounded by kids, and felt the love he held for this woman. Kam's uncontrollable sobs and feelings of disappointment in himself were as genuinely obvious to Sekava as looks of dismay and shock on Luke and Mara's faces. They told Sekava all he needed to know – Kam truly had been broken.

Sekava looked over to his master, and received a satisfied smile in return.

"You have done well, Sekava," Krak said, leading his apprentice out of the room by his shoulder as Kam was dropped unceremoniously on the ground by the Embrace. "You have taken a valuable step towards becoming a true Sith."

-

Urik's comlink chirped at him impatiently as he walked away from delivering the news to Soora. Smiling, he activated his helmet comm.

"You saw the news, master?"

"I don't know what news you're talking about, but I'm glad you finally realized who your master is."

It was not the words that froze Urik in his spot. He barely even noticed what was being said.

It was the distinctive gravely voice that petrified him.

"F-Fett?" Urik asked. "How did you find me?"

"I've been hunting people since before your mommy crapped you out," Fett sneered. "I've been following you since the day you cheated in our battle after you lost. I demand a duel. Meet me on Yavin 4 in four days. Bring only one other or you will regret it. If I see even a single lightsaber, I'll kill everyone I see."

The connection terminated, but Urik's fear did not. An incredible smell began to waft up inside the armour suit, accompanied with an expanding warmth down his legs, which prompted Urik to race to his quarters for a trip to the refresher.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After a couple days of guard duty, Roshi and Trigger received new orders from Darth Treulos.

"Looks like you got your wish, Trig," Roshi tossed him the datapad the little Sith messenger kid had dropped off. "We're hunting Terentatek."

"What? Finally!" Trigger looked over the orders happily, already running over his inventory to plan what weapons to bring.

Roshi spent the next hour collecting food and other supplies for their overnight hunting trip and reading over the datapad. Included was a description of the Terentatek and known behaviour, and a list of attacks the Sith had suffered since they arrived. A giant lizard, approximately three tonnes massive, it was equipped with giant claws, razor-sharp teeth, thick armoured scales, back spikes, and could lie dormant for thousands of years. Marginally sensitive to the eddies of the Force, they awoke from hibernation when Sith activity increased. Several times the Jedi hunted the Terentateks to near-extinction, but were never able to eradicate them from the galaxy. The last time one was reported seen was nearly a thousand years past. The only known weak spots were between the armour plates, the mouth, and the leg joints. A side note that peaked both Mandalorian's attention was the worth of Terentatek scales on the black market. One beast's scales would be enough to buy someone their own star cruiser.

"Sounds like fun. Where's my mines?" Was all Trigger said to the diagnosis.

The two set out just before sunset and hiked for about two hours into the woods where the Terentatek was reported to be nesting. They found a defensible area next to a clearing with a natural blind made up from several bushes and trees. They set up a camp they could fall back to should they find themselves chased by a beast so they would have some measure of safety.

"Never hurts to be prepared," Trigger said as he dropped his pack and removed his helmet. After a moment he fished out a stack of twenty land mines of various sorts from the backpack and handed the stack to Roshi so he could pull out another stack. "Line the paths between those openings of trees over there and there."

He was pointing to two open areas when a tree branch fell directly on his head. Approximately twenty centimetres across, the rotten branch broke in half upon impact and dropped him like a rock.

Roshi checked for a pulse to ensure Trigger was alive, and stood up.

"Sorry, but this is one hunt I have to do on my own. Good luck, Trigger."

Roshi retrieved a datapad from his backpack and placed it on Trigger's pack with a quick recording. Hopefully it would explain everything.

He replaced Trigger's helmet and took one more look around to ensure Trigger would be okay, hefted his blaster, and headed into the woods without looking back.

-

Sekava sat in his room, mediating on his lesson with the Jedi.

_You did what you had to do,_ He told himself. _ They would've hurt you otherwise._

_That's not the only reason, _A powerful voice interrupted. It took him a few moments to notice it was his own, but different; it was like a hungry Krayt Dragon in his heart. _You enjoyed that._

_I…no I didn't!_ He told the other voice. _I don't believe that!_

_You know it is true,_ The Krayt Dragon whispered. _Ever since Morris…_

_Don't say that name to me again!_

Any further thoughts were cut off by the door opening to reveal the face of Darth Krak.

"May I interrupt?" He asked politely.

_Odd that he asks after he enters,_ Sekava thought absently as his mind came back to reality.

"No, no, please come in," Sekava motioned to the chair across the room from him. His growing prowess with the Force and his reputation for dangerous power was winning him respect. And with respect came furniture. "How can I help you, Master?"

Krak plopped down on the arm chair with one leg hanging over the left arm, and his back leaning against the opposite corner. He took a last bite out of the fruit he was eating and tossed the core into the waste basket behind him without looking at his target.

"You are progressing well, my young apprentice," Krak complimented lazily. He almost appeared to be bored to be there. "Your last test proved how strong your resolve is. You have made me proud."

"Thank you, Master," Sekava said, not sure if he meant it. Killing a friend in cold blood…torture…what had he become?

"Your next task will be very difficult, but very important."

Images of infiltrating Jedi or Republic institutions, sabotaging enemy hardware or communication lines flitted across Sekava's mind.

"Yes, Master," Sekava said eagerly, glad to be thinking of something else. Getting off this wretched planet and away from anything that reminded him of Morris would be welcome. "How may I serve?"

"I'm sending you on a hunt."

_Bounty hunting,_ Sekava thought. _Not bad._

"Who is the quarry?" Sekava asked.

"Not who: What."

"I…don't understand."

Krak adjusted his posture and leaned on his knees with his elbows, looking carefully at Sekava.

"We have received reports from the Mandalorians that there are giant beasts in the forests to the south," He said carefully. "We believe they are Terentateks."

"Wha-tracks?"

"Terentateks," Krak grinned mischievously. "They feed off the blood of Force sensitives and love the dark side. Naturally, they would be quite dangerous to our academy here, if they do in fact exist, considering they are huge mindless lizards that kill anything they can. I want you to find their lair."

"Won't I get eaten?"

"What is the point of a test if it isn't fun?" Krak's grin widened. He got up and walked to the door. "Find the nest and return. You will leave immediately."

-

**From the Private Journal of Jedi Master Jacen Solo **

With comments by B. Wrarm, Jedi Librarian

Date unknown

I found them, finally. They've been abused, tormented, and tortured, but at least they're alive. My plan is in motion, and it will be only a day or two before I get them out. I have to figure out some way of distracting everyone long enough to break them out. My partner has informed me that some reliable transportation has been arranged. I won't say what because of security reasons, but I couldn't have asked for a better arrangement.

I will trust in the Force to bring me a solution.

End Entry

-

Urik Ragash. Mandalore. Warrior and Leader of the Mandalorian Nation.

Traitor, enemy, and target of Boba Fett.

Standing at the base of some crumpled old temple in the middle of a forest on some backwater moon, Urik wondered how history would remember him.

Ten metres away stood Boba Fett, and Urik did not need Jedi skills to know what he was thinking.

Fett wanted history to _never_ remember the name "Urik Ragash."

Fett and Urik, per Mandalorian tradition, had brought one ally each. Urik's stood behind Fett, and Fett's stood behind Urik's. This was to keep both combatants honest, as, if in the case of one ally killing one of the combatants, the other ally could exact revenge immediately.

Contrary to Soora's recommendation, Urik had not ordered a contingent to join in for his protection. He felt it necessary to complete this honour duel properly. He knew Fett would do likewise, mostly because he did not need a platoon of troops to take out a contingent of enemies. He was that good. And Urik did not want to sacrifice his troops.

What Fett did not know, however, was that Urik's ally was not a Mandalorian, but a Sith. A lightsaber had been hidden inside the suit of armour, and the Sith's Force skills would come very much in handy. Like the last time, this was not a battle Urik was prepared to lose.

"Ready!" Fett shouted.

"For Mandalore!" Urik shouted back, drawing his twin blaster pistols in an eyeblink as Fett snapped his rifle to firing position and launched a grenade.

The battle was on.

-

Roshi travelled through the woods on his solo mission. He knew the risks of walking out in the forest alone with just a blaster rifle and sidearm, but his mission was critical. He had to find the Terentatek nest.

After twenty minutes of marching through the forest, he came across a huge clearing marked by multiple trees lying on their sides with massive claw marks across the bark. In the middle of the clearing was a large hole in the ground, a nest of sorts, with a dome half way down that moved up and down slowly.

_The Terentatek_, Roshi thought to himself. The movement he saw was the breathing of the beast as the giant scales and spines on its back raised and lowered in time with the breaths. As his helmet adjusted to the light in the clearing, he noticed that there was not just one breathing pile of scales. He counted at least twenty of the giant beasts.

_Pure sabbac!_

He approached the first Terentatek he saw carefully, careful to not step on any branches or slip on a rock that might alert the giant beasts that a meal might be arriving. When he reached the hole, he looked down on the creature, gazing upon its massive build with admiration and respect. Then he heard a sound behind him. It was a human voice.

Roshi turned around to look at a human male that just entered the clearing.

"You shouldn't be here," He said to the man.

The man said something, lit a lightsaber, and leapt high towards Roshi.

-

_What am I doing out here?___Sekava thought to himself as he climbed over the twelfth fallen tree and examined the tree bark. _I have more important things to be doing!_

_The Sith know best,_ The nagging little Krayt Dragon piped up. _Learn from them and become strong. It is your destiny._

"How would you know?" Sekava asked aloud. "Who are you?"

_Your little friend,_ The voice answered. But was it the same voice? This one sounded a bit different. Or did it?

"Some friend," Sekava examined the claw markings on the tree, each claw swath the width of all his fingers put together. They were definitely made by something much larger than him.

_I am all the friends you need. I can help you to greatness._

Sekava looked at the path torn through the jungle and leapt off the tree. He could see at least a dozen more trees along the path as it faded into darkness in the distance.

"No sense waiting around here," Sekava said, and then stopped. "Why am I talking to you? You don't exist!"

_Of course I exist. I'm inside you. I'm here to remind you to be a Sith. You know you must find the beast…draw on your anger and use the Force!_

Sekava ignored the voice and trudged though the forest. Every few minutes the voice would speak to him, reminding him of the powers he possessed, the things he could do with it.

_You can control the beast just as easily as you killed Morris._

"Don't say his name to me!" Sekava screamed loud enough to scare off a flock of birds. A flicker of his anger sent a patch of dirt after the birds, but they were already out of his range.

_I will tell you what you must hear! Only through releasing your anger will you become great!_

Sekava knew this. He had been told that from the day he arrived on this wretched planet. But now he was becoming scared of his anger, scared of what he could do with it. All of this, everything he had learned since arriving here was so different, so contrary to his old life. Could he go back to it if he wanted? Was he still that person?

"I need to keep my mind clear," Sekava said, Force-jumping over a fallen tree in a single bound. "And you're not helping!"

_Your anger will clear your mind._

"I doubt it will get rid of you," Sekava sneered. He suddenly realized, again, that he was speaking to himself and refocused on his goal. His distracted mind brought him to a clearing in the woods with a giant hole in the ground…and a Mandalorian standing at the edge of the hole. It took him a moment to realize he was waiting for the voice to tell him what to do when the Mandalorian turned around.

"You shouldn't be here," The Mandalorian said.

"Neither should you," Sekava sneered. He ignited his lightsaber and leapt towards the lone Mandalorian. This coward would be dealt with easily. He is no challenge for a Sith.

_Nobody will endanger _our_ mission!_


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Blaster bolts glanced off Urik's armoured shoulder sending his shots wild as Fett made a jetpack-assisted leap out of Urik's line of fire. The grenade, deactivated by Urik's Sith companion, bounced harmlessly to where Urik was. Both allies retreated from the combatants and watched as Fett launched a micro-rocket from his wrist mounted launcher and continued to pummel Urik's armour with blaster bolts. Urik danced around trying to make himself a harder target to hit while returning fire. Unfortunately, Fett was too damned good. His shots hit Urik's armour, hardly damaging it but effectively twisting his body to throw him off with the force of the shots as Fett closed the distance between himself and Urik. Urik was thrown out of the way by his Sith companion, barely turning the leap into a roll when a massive plume of fire exploded from Fett's flame thrower, and Urik landed his first shots on Fett as he came out of his roll. Like Fett's own shots, the blaster bolts glanced harmlessly off hardened Mandalorian armour, but Fett was not the only one with a plan. He charged at Fett, firing as fast as he could with his blasters and leapt at the bounty hunter, dropping his blasters and extending the blades built into the wrist gauntlets of his armour in a desperate attempt to find a weak spot in the amour with his blades. Fett barely twisted out of the way, smashing his blaster against Urik's back and sending the younger man to the ground...and snapped his blaster rifle in half from the force of the blow. Fett immediately switched to his flame thrower again, blasting the traitor at point-blank range with the flames.

While Mandalorian armour could take extreme conditions, including the vacuum of space, the occupant could not necessarily do so. Temperatures within Urik's suit rose quickly, but he did not plan on staying there very long. He rolled towards Fett, drawing a short vibro-sword hidden in his armour and driving it into Fett's leg at the knee armour overlap.

Either Fett had his armour sound proofed, or he went down without even a grunt of pain despite having his femur sheered in half. As Fett fell, Urik yanked the blade free with a twist and pulled himself up. His armour still hissed and glowed with the heat Fett had poured on it, but everything still worked. He drew the sword up high to drive it into Fett's neck when the entire electrical system shut down, rendering him blinded and without the strength enhancing hydraulics.

Fett chose that moment to use his flame thrower and wrist missile launcher again, blasting Urik off his feet. Urik dropped the sword and fell outside of the range of Fett's flame thrower, frantically trying to remove his helmet so he could see again. He barely got it off in time to see Fett dragging himself across the ground with Urik's sword in hand, limp leg bleeding behind him. As Urik tried to put some distance between himself and the bounty hunter, Fett chopped at Urik's foot with a perfect slice between the armour plates and removed the foot.

Urik screamed in pain and redoubled his efforts to get away from the other man, but was stopped when Fett grabbed his other foot and continued to drag himself towards Urik. Urik tried slamming his severed foot into Fett's head, but receiving blood smears from a raw bone only seemed to entice Fett. Fett swung the sword at Urik, clashing with the body armour across his chest and nearly splitting Urik's brow in half.

_Where's that bloody Sith?_ Urik demanded. As if on cue, Fett's body was flung away from Urik, and a set of Mandalorian armour holding a red lightsaber appeared at Urik's side.

"This one is too valuable for you to kill," the Sith said to Fett as the other Mandalorian came to Fett's side. "But the two of you will fall by my blade.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," A powerful, distinctive voice said from behind the Sith. A flash of blue light and a familiar snap-hiss brought everyone's attention to a man levelling an ancient Bryar pistol at the Sith as he circled around to Fett's defense – Kyle Katarn.

"Here's the deal;" Katarn said. "No more fighting. You leave and take Stumpy with you, and I'll take Fett. This one's a draw."

The Sith examined Katarn's face. It was not so much the grim look that made him consider the deal as it was Katarn's reputation in combat. Sith did not survive long by picking fights they could not win, and a Jedi Master offering him to walk away was a rare offer indeed.

"Deal. This fight's over."

-

Soora Bulq walked on the outside of the defence wall constructed around the Jedi compound. Although it was perhaps the most important defence that had been added to defend the base, Soora found it sometimes cluttered his thoughts and that walking on the outside cleared his mind. As he walked along the side that bordered the woods some two hundred metres away, he heard a crash from inside the bush. His curiosity peaked, but he did not fear. He was too much a master to be scared of anything Ossus could throw at him. A moment later a lone Mandalorian came through the bush several metres away from where Soora walked.

"Hey!" The Mandalorian shouted and waved at Soora. He recognized the armour as one of Darth Treulos' pets she acquired on her last mission. "They're attacking! The Terentateks, they're attacking!"

"What?" Soora asked. "Terentatek_s_?"

"Yeah, at least thirty!" The Mandalorian shouted, breathing heavy from his sprint through the woods. He half-jogged over towards Soora, clutching an elaborate sniper rifle. "Those things are huge!"

"Where is the other Mandalorian sent with you?" Soora asked.

"They must've got him," He replied. "But it doesn't matter. Those things are _huge_!"

"Go attend to your duties," Soora responded. "I'll take care of the defences."

"Yessir," He replied, and jogged off towards the entrance.

The Mandalorian ran as best he could through the Sith training area when an alarm sounded, alerting everyone to the immanent attack. Within seconds Sith and Mandos alike were scrambling to defensive positions along the defence walls, readying blasters and heavy weaponry. He finally arrived at the prison and found all four remaining members of the commando team inside the holding cell. Through the door he could hear their conversation as he fumbled to trigger the door release.

"Are you sure she'd remember you?" The female voice of Blade was asking someone. "It has been a while. She might not even want to talk to you."

"I'm sure she would," Parmis responded. "I know I want to talk to her. We were friends for a long time. It's not like we parted company under bad terms. The circumstances just changed so quickly we couldn't keep up. May..."

The door finally swung open and revealed the Mandalorian, doubled over and breathing heavily.

"Roshi? What's going on?" Lanos demanded, recognizing the armour.

"Terentateks," He replied breathlessly. "They're attacking. There has to be thirty of them out there!"

"Where's Trigger?"

"That doesn't matter," The Mandalorian named Roshi said, standing tall, miraculously able to breathe without difficulty. "It's yourselves you have to worry about."

"What?"

At that moment Darth Treulos came through the door, saw the Mandalorians around the prisoners, and blasted everyone mercilessly with Sith lightning.

-

"Get those heavy turrets mounted!" Soora shouted at the Mandalorians as they raced along the defence walls lugging E-Webs and other heavy weapons in a race against the approaching Terentateks. One had already broken through the woods and fell to Soora's blades. With one blade shorter than the other, Soora had developed his unique style of Vaapad to be as deadly as Mace Windu once was. As he looked into the dark forest for his next victim he wondered what his old friend would think of his skills now. The first time they fought as enemies he had only taken the first steps along the path he now walked. As Lord of the Sith, his mastery of Vaapad grew so he could slaughter a Terentatek single-handedly.

He looked up at the scrambling Mandalorians who had finally assembled seven E-Webs along the top of the wall. He leapt onto the wall beside a pair of startled Mandalorians and saw his Sith assembled among Mandalorians in the field behind the wall. Darth Krak readied and silenced the troops upon seeing Soora, though he did not have much to do.

With two red blades casting an eerie glow over his face and black robes as his hair and robes whipped in the night wind, Soora was an impressive sight on his own. Through the Force he burned with radiant power that seemed to catch the attention of the Mandalorians as well as the Sith as easily as a beacon in the darkest night.

"We are under attack by Terentateks!" Soora shouted. "This is a _test_! A test of worthiness for warriors! Are you worthy to be warriors of the Sith?"

"Yes!" Came the expected cry from all assembled. Soora knew some were not, as much as they believed they were, but a true Lord of the Sith did not survive by putting _himself_ on the front lines.

"Then prove it!" He shouted back, raising his lightsaber high. "Open the gates and slay those beasts!"

The Sith and Mandalorians shouted a battle cry and charged out the gate. Soora and Krak exchanged a significant look, and Krak ran to join the battle.

Soora watched as his Sith attacked the beasts as they poured though the treeline. Some, upon seeing the mass of claws, thick scales and teeth ran away outright – they would be punished. Others tried jumping on the backs of the Terentateks, only to be slashed in half with one mad swipe of a claw. The few who actually made it onto the backs of Terentateks had used the Mandalorians blasters to distract the beasts long enough to get through their defence. Plunging a blade deep into the neck beneath the defensive head plate was both difficult and the fastest way to slay one of those goliaths. Soora himself made more of an art out of carving the beast he had faced minutes earlier, preferring to leave it defenceless before gouging out both eyes with his blades and thus mutilating the brain.

He watched as Lord Krak fought with his brutal-yet-elegant style, taking blows from the front claws off his lightsaber and weaving himself around the beast to hack at it with brute force. A mixture of speed, agility, and power, Krak was as effective as any warrior Soora had taught.

He watched the Mandalorians fire steams of blaster bolts into the beasts, most of which bounced off the hardened scale armour with as little regard as a Wookiee would pay a light breeze. Even the rocket launchers and grenades they used seemed to bounce off the armour and hardly affect the Terentateks.

Soora finally stopped watching and leapt into the battlefield when three of the Terentateks reached the wall he was standing on and started pounding it to scrap.

He landed on the back of one, hacking at the body spikes without much effect. The beast reared up when it felt the impact of Soora hitting his scales. He slipped around the spikes and ran towards the head of the beast, but it threw itself backwards in an attempt to squish him against the ground. He jumped high as the Terentatek flipped over and readied himself as he landed on the beast's belly, driving his lightsabers down hard. They barely scorched the scales.

The Terentatek rolled over, throwing a shocked Soora to the ground and nearly would have crushed him if he had not deactivated his lightsabers and rolled into the crevice between its top shell and bottom casing. The Terentatek moved away looking for the prey it expected to have crushed and gave Soora the chance to come to his feet. He activated both lightsabers, holding them out at angles to his body. Both Sith and Terentatek stared at each other with mutual contempt.

Terentatek roared and charged at Soora.

Soora responded with a battle cry of his own.

He jumped towards the Terentatek ready for a clawed attack, but the beast merely angled its head and he impacted the thick skull plate, bouncing off but still able to twist himself to ram his shorter lightsaber up the Terentatek's nose. The Terentatek howled in pain with the Sith hanging off the lightsaber in its nose. The lightsaber easily carved up the inside of the Terentatek, but the outer skin still resisted the cutting of the lightsaber, effectively trapping the blade. Soora twisted himself around, reversed his grip on his other lightsaber, and rammed it behind himself up into the roof of the Terentateks mouth, finally silencing it.

The other two Terentateks, having destroyed a sizable portion of the wall and the Mandalorians on top of it, turned to face their fallen brother at the sound of his death cry.

Soora, bruised, beaten, and bloodied, looked back at the beasts with hunger. The hunger to kill.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Traitors!" Darth Treulos screamed as she bombarded the Mandalorians with lightning, slowly draining their unconsciousness. "You won't steal our prize!"

Four of the Mandalorians staggered under the attack, but the lightning merely blasted the helmet off the one with his back to the door and made him stumble. He seemed to draw the lightning into himself and redirect it into his fellow Mandalorians until they were truly unconscious. The lightning played over the walls and everything around him except the prisoners. He finally turned around.

"Jacen?" Darth Treulos shouted in disbelief.

"Hi Tahiri," He said, calmly redirecting the lightning at her. "Miss me?"

Suddenly he stopped the lightning and stumbled to one knee.

"Okay, that should be all the surveillance equipment," Jacen said weakly when a final burst of flame died against the wall. He caught himself against a table before he fell over entirely, and Tahiri rushed forward and pulled Jacen up into a hug, which he gratefully returned.

"Hello?" Luke called out. "Care to lend a hand?"

Jacen and Tahiri broke their hug with smiles. Tahiri retrieved Blade's sword to cut the vines of the Embrace and Jacen pulled himself up and stumbled over to where Kam was lying on a cot.

"I'm so sorry, Kam," Jacen apologized to the unconscious Jedi. The injuries were brutal and extensive, but all Jacen could have done without exposing himself was to induce a healing trance once the torture was done. His connection with Kam was not as strong as with Luke and Mara, who he was more capable of protecting. He used the Force to reset the dislocated rib, something he knew would be extremely painful if Kam was awake, but knew it had to be done sooner rather than later now that Kam was already in a healing trance for two days. Ribs were not meant to sit under the rib cage at odd angles. He just hoped that the internal bleeding would be taken care of by the healing trance.

"He should be fine," Jacen said to his aunt and uncle, now free of the Embrace. Tahiri produced their lightsabers from under her cape and tossed Kam's lightsaber to Jacen, which he clipped to his own belt – perhaps the oddest addition to Mandalorian armour he had seen yet. "But we should get him into a Bacta tank as soon as possible. I trust the Embrace has been going easy on you since I arrived?"

"You two planned this yourselves?" Mara asked, ignoring his question and accepting her lightsaber.

"Yes," Jacen said. "Kyp didn't even want to acknowledge you guys could still be alive. I looked at my options and found that Tahiri is unique among the Jedi in that she can avoid the lure of the Sith better than anyone. With her own and Riina's personalities in her head, one can keep the other sane and tell lies more effectively. She infiltrated the Sith and helped me get in a position to help you out. I'm sorry we couldn't do anything sooner."

"Better late than never," Luke said, activating and testing out his lightsaber on the table to confirm it still worked. The blade shone brightly and hummed with enthusiasm as it easily carved through the table. "Now how do we get out of here?"

"Lowie's coming," Tahiri said. "He crashed the _Shadow_ in the jungle during the evac and has been hiding there since making repairs. I made contact with him and provided him with stuff to repair the ship, including a couple Mandalorian cloaking devices and Artoo."

"I lured some Terentateks into attacking the facility here," Jacen said. "A little distraction to give us some cover. Soora's going to be a little too busy to worry about a handful of Jedi escaping."

"We should get going," Luke said.

"I'm staying," Tahiri said. "There's a spy among the Jedi feeding Soora information. I can't leave until I find out who it is."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked. "You've already put yourself in enough danger as it is. They'll know you helped us escape."

"No," She said with adamant determination. "We staged it so all the surveillance equipment would be destroyed and all witnesses would be unconscious. Nobody knows about this conversation except us, and Riina can help me lie. I'll be fine."

Luke put a hand on her shoulder and looked deep into her eyes, seeing her steadfast resolve.

"Thank you, Tahiri."

"Here," Slightly embarrassed, looking more like the old Tahiri Luke remembered than she had lately. She pulled a data card from her belt and handed it to him. "I found it in your room. I brought some other things to Lowie already, but I just found this one. It's the holoimages from your front hall."

She bowed her head and walked to the door. "I guess this means you get to blast me now, Jacen."

"I promise it won't hurt," Jacen said. "Oh, just to warn you, Trigger's developing a bit of a thing for you."

A mixture of fear, disbelief, and disgust overtook her face. "I thought you said this wouldn't hurt."

"I wish," Jacen looked at her apologetically. "Thank you, Tahiri, for everything. Please take care of my team." He gestured to the unconscious Mandalorians at his feet.

"I will," She smiled, knowing how attached to them he had become.

He fired a careful blast of Force energy at her that hit her clean in the chest and knocked her back against the wall unconscious. The use of the Force seemed to drain him more than a marathon, but he did no more than sway on the spot. He walked up to her and placed a hand on her head for a moment.

"There, now she won't easily recall this conversation," Jacen said. "Lowie's almost here. Let's go."

Jacen shook his head and focused himself, shaking away his exhaustion. With new energy, he led his aunt and uncle out of the chamber with Kam being floated between the two Jedi Masters. He crept through the hallways, hearing shouts and blaster fire nearby, but had a clear run as they made their way to the designated landing pad. When they reached the landing pad, a hatched opened in thin air to reveal Ben Skywalker smiling and waving.

"C'mon!" He called, waving his parents aboard.

Luke and Mara ran ahead with Kam and boarded the ship with Jacen trailing behind. Before Jacen could reach the ship, a blaster bolt hit the ground by his feet. He stopped and turned to see a lone figure in gold armour pointing his blaster Jacen's head. Jacen did not bother to raise the blaster rifle in his hands.

"Go," Jacen said to his aunt and uncle. "I'll be right there."

He took a few steps towards Lanos.

"So you're a Jedi," Lanos said, ignoring the other Jedi as they boarded the ship.

"Yes," Jacen replied.

"You betrayed our trust," He growled. "Pretending to be one of us while ready to stab us in the back at a moment's notice."

"Would you have done differently for your family?" Jacen asked.

After a moment's reflection, Lanos threw something at Jacen in response. Jacen caught it easily one handed and looked at it. It was a blue Mandalorian helmet. His helmet.

"Probably not," Lanos agreed. "You'll always be a brother to the Mandalorians."

With that, Lanos walked back towards the holding cell and Jacen boarded the ship. Jacen sent an empathic message to the Terentateks, and a few minutes later the _Jade Shadow_ broke through the atmosphere and jumped to hyperspace, finally leaving Ossus behind.

Soora sprinted towards the two Terentateks as they raced towards…and past him. He leapt high as the beasts charged past him, and he twisted in mid air to see why the Terentatek had dodged him. As he landed on the ground, he noticed that all the Terentateks had charged into the woods at the same time.

He stared at the retreating animals and the Force revealed to him what they were – a diversion. A diversion that could be created by only one person. A person that had infiltrated his camp and had eluded the best bounty hunters.

A person who had even spoken to him not half an hour before.

"Master Bulq!" Someone ran up to Soora. "The Jedi! The Jedi have escaped!"

Soora did not even bother to see who it was. He flung his lightsaber at the person without turning around, spearing the messenger's head with the blade. He walked back towards the camp hesitating in step only long enough to call the lightsaber from the man's head to his hand.

"You will pay for this, Jacen Solo," Soora said in a trembling voice to nobody in particular with the calmness of voice that could only be attained from anger overloading his ability to express emotion. "You will pay."

-

-

Epilogue

Sekava stumbled out of the forest and came across a group of Sith patrolling the outside of the forest. The academy walls in the distance looked like they had suffered considerable damage, but it hardly recognized in Sekava's mind.

_You failed us, little Sith. They won't be happy. You must avenge yourself._

His mind flashed back to the battle in the forest clearing. He had leapt in high, lightsaber blazing, but found himself flying backwards. He bounced off a tree utterly bewildered. Even worse, his lightsaber appeared in the Mandalorian's hand, blade pointed at his chin.

"You're Roshi?" Was all he had thought to say. He recognized the armour from the guards at the Jedi brig.

"Yes," The Mandalorian had replied. "And no. I usually go by Jacen Solo."

He remembered the fear, the confusion, and the rage that all rushed over him at one time. He told Solo he would not get away. The others would stop him. Solo merely laughed at him. Oddly enough, it was a polite laugh. Almost gentle and understanding. He could almost see Solo smiling softly through the menacing helmet.

"I'm taking the Jedi with me. Not even Soora can stop me," He had told Sekava as everything started going dark. "By the time you wake up, I'll be in hyperspace…"

_You must destroy Jacen Solo. You will never be worthy to be a Sith until he is gone._

The Sith patrol moved towards Sekava to assist him, but he stood tall and knocked them back with uncontrolled raging telekinesis. The voice made too much sense. It always had; he just never realized it. He looked to the sky trembling with anger and pledged his destiny:

"Your head will be mine, Jacen Solo!"

* * *

AN: I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter of this trillogy. I regret to inform you all that there will be a delay until I will be ready to start posting the third chapter, _Dawn of Chaos_. I have, perhaps, 70% of it written, but there are still gaping holes in the storyline that I need to fill and the whole editing process to do before I feel comfortable presenting it. The reason for the delay is that I will be writing the GMAT examination to get into grad school and I need to focus my efforts on that until late October. My plan is to start writing again in November, and hopefully finish by January. However, nothing is set in stone. Except the date of my GMAT exam. Unfortunately. I assure you that it will be worth the wait. And if you're curious, it is 65,156 words thus far, which is almost as long as Détentes End. I'm hoping to get it up to 85,000.

Thanks again for reading!


End file.
